Early careers toolkit

Apprenticeships provide people with an opportunity to learn on the job, gaining knowledge and skills and achieving qualifications while earning money. The LGA's apprenticeship support programme aims to help councils maximise the return on investment of their apprenticeship levy.

T Levels are qualifications for students after GCSEs and are equivalent to three A Levels. These two-year courses have been developed in collaboration with employers and businesses, to ensure it meets the needs of all parties. As part of T Levels students need to complete an industry placement. Councils are working with providers to offer these placement opportunities. Students have already completed placements within digital, planning and construction teams. The LGA's T Level toolkit provides advice and guidance to councils to support the planning and delivery of high quality industry placements which form part of a T Level qualification.

The LGA offers talented graduates a launch pad for a rewarding leadership career in local government. Graduates have the opportunity to apply for the National Graduate Development Programme (NGDP), a two-year programme where graduates are placed in councils with the aim of developing their skills to become leaders of the future.

Some university courses include a year in industry, which allows undergraduates to spend a year of their studies working within the area of their chosen subject.

Councils may run scholarships which give young people the opportunity to work within local government and provide them with an insight into different roles.

As part of a student’s course, they may be required to complete a work experience placement. This is a great opportunity for your council to work with young people.

Our example work experience plan can support your council in developing work experience projects and activities.

We also have a slides from a presentation on what a good work experience placement looks like.

Supported internships are a structured, work-based study programme for 16 to 24-year-olds with special educational needs (SEND), who have an education, health and care (EHC) plan. The core element of a supported internship study programme is a substantial work placement, facilitated by the support of an expert job coach. Some councils offer supported internships as a route into local government. Further information on supported internships can be found on the Department for Education (DfE) website.

A traineeship is a skills development programme that includes a work placement. It can last from six weeks up to one year, though most traineeships last for less than six months. These are another useful entry route into local government. The DfE has more information on traineeships.

Care leavers may face barriers to overcome when starting their careers. Therefore, it is important to ensure they are supported and given opportunities to secure their next steps. As a council you could set yourself targets for offering apprenticeships, entry level work or other opportunities to care leavers. You will also want to consider what support you offer both in the application process and during their employment. This could include financial, housing and skills development. We have a support for care leavers resource pack which explains more.

Consider what other programmes are available to engage with young people and early careers. For example, councils had success in supporting young people with the Kickstart Scheme when it was running.

There may be occasions when you are invited to go into schools and colleges to talk to students about careers in local government. Depending on the audience you could present information about:

• the role of local government and what it does
• specific services within a council such as social care or digital roles
• routes into careers in councils, including apprenticeships or graduate schemes
• what it is like to work in local government.

It may be beneficial to deliver activities to engage students during these visits, to get them thinking about the role of councils as a way of promoting local government and deepening understanding.

We have created a session plan template you can use to structure your visits and some ideas for activities.

Providers often welcome employers setting projects for their students. Projects can be embedded into a student’s course or used as additional work. There are many benefits for engaging with providers to set projects such as:

• an opportunity to engage students and promote local government
• give students real life experience
• have students come up with solutions to existing projects
• create of pipeline for apprenticeships, entry level work or graduate level roles.

What projects could a council offer?

The projects you set could link to the specific course. Examples could include:

• The council wishes to improve the way it promotes its services to its local people. The aim is to ensure these services are easily accessible to all residents and they can access information that they need. The council has existing tools to access information such as its website. However, we wish to widen the reach of the information. The aim of the project is for your team to devise a plan on how we increase the visibility of council’s services. You need to consider making this accessible to all individuals and ensuring the project is cost effective.
• The council is leading the regeneration of the local area, which includes bringing disused land back into use. This includes a building which used to be a community centre with surrounding grounds which does not meet health and safety requirements and is no longer fit for purpose. As a council we are welcome to ideas for how this space can be transformed and what it would look like. The aim of the project is for you to create a plan for what we use this area for. We want the space to be environmentally friendly, welcoming and inclusive to all residents. Please also consider the timeframes.

Understand the providers

You will need to identify your local providers and understand what courses they offer. This will enable you to shape what projects you set. Providers will often have a careers leader who you can work with to plan and deliver these projects. Alternatively, you can work with teachers directly.

It is important to consider the below factors when developing employer set projects:

• Which providers and courses will you target?
• What will the project include? Is this a real-life project?
• Which council staff will be involved in the planning and delivery of the project?
• What is the duration of the project? Include key dates.
• At what point of the year will the project go live?
• How will you measure and give feedback to students, and which staff will lead on this?

We have a downloadable resource for councils to plan employer set projects.

Mock interviews are a great way for young people to develop their interview skills, and build confidence for the future. It is also a useful tool to promote local government to a wider audience. You may want to use questions you would normally ask during regular interviews. Below are some examples you could use:

• Tell us a bit about yourself? What you do in your spare time? Have you ever had a temporary or part-time job?
• What do you know about our council?
• What skills do you think you could use during your time with us? How have you used these skills in the past?
• What do you hope to learn on a placement? What do you hope to do after coming on it?
• Tell us about a time when you were part of a team? It could be at work, in a club or at college.
• What do you do when you come across a problem that’s hard to solve?
• What questions do you have for us?

Creating a Career Ambassador programme with your council is a useful means of engaging with providers and young people. Council employees could volunteer to represent their service/council with a specific provider. This employee could lead different tasks such as class talks, creating employer set projects or mock interviews. Career Ambassadors can share information to the wider council on what courses are being delivered at local providers and how this may link into the organisation's long term recruitment plan.

The Careers and Enterprise Company works with employers across all sectors to engage with providers and young people. Councils have a great opportunity to have a positive influence on young people’s education and career choices. There are number of opportunities to work with the Careers and Enterprise Company. Examples of this include:

• volunteering with a school or a college
• becoming a cornerstone employer
• industry partnerships.

• Ability to speak clearly and confidently
• Good written skills, including the ability to explain in a clear and concise manner
• Establish a good working relationship with colleagues
• Ability to work in a team

• Self-motivated
• Able to complete tasks with minimal supervision
• Ability to understand a problem and establish a positive resolution
• Respond effectively to unexpected issues which arise

• Able to plan well, monitor and adequately manage workload
• Being methodical in approaching tasks
• Completes assigned tasks within deadlines to a sufficient standard
• Adapts quickly to changing timescales

• Understanding and knowing the value of diversity and what it can bring to an organisation
• Being considerate of the different needs of individuals
• Demonstrates an ability to work with people from different backgrounds
• Ensures work takes account of accessibility requirements

• This may be the first time a young person is applying for a job, so you may want to focus more on skills you are looking for over experience.
• Share job descriptions with any young employees you have to make sure it is appealing to the target audience.
• Avoid role and recruitment terminology which would normally require experience in other jobs to understand.
• Highlight your culture and values so young people can buy into what your organisation is trying to achieve.

• Think about the best ways to advertise jobs to ensure you are capturing young people. For example promoting roles across social media as well as job sites could help reach them.
• Use the appropriate social media platforms for the age range you are targeting.
• Work closely with further and higher education providers who can help promote opportunities.
• Focus on attending and promoting at those career fairs which young people are most likely to attend.
• Job fairs can be used to interview candidates on the spot to shorten the interview process.

• Young people may not have extensive employment experience so consider what transferable skills can be considered instead.
• Sell your council and what you are aiming to achieve, including development opportunities.
• Consider reasonable adjustments that may need to be made prior to the interview.

• Keep young applicants updated on the next steps as they may be new to the process.
• If it is their first job they will lack employment history for references. Consider alternative character or personal references.
• Create a positive and informative induction process, which takes account of possible lack of experience of workplaces and relevant systems
• Assign new young employees mentors – this is especially important for their progression.
• Where possible provide opportunities for new employees to experience different projects and areas of the organisation.

Some of your younger employees may have career aspirations and are keen to enhance their skills and knowledge within your council. They may also want to gain experience within different departments or roles.

As a way of developing and retaining these staff you could consider allowing them to gain experience in different areas of your council through internal work experience. This could be a useful way for an employee to gain an understanding of the wider council and roles available. It can enable you to meet their aspiration. They can also use the skills and knowledge they develop from this to bring to their substantive role.

Internal work experience is different to a secondment as it gives the employee a short-term opportunity to gain experience in other parts of the council. 

How to put this into practice

During reviews or appraisals, establish the employee's career aspirations and the skills they want to develop. Through discussions with other teams within the council you can identify what the opportunities could be and the how it would look (eg number of days per week). It will be important to consider what period of the year this will take place, as you may want to avoid peak times. You will also want to be clear with the manager where the employee is gaining experience on the objectives you all want to achieve.

You can use our internal work experience plan to assist in organising this.

Young people are under-represented in our sector, making up just 4.7 per cent of local government jobs. As part of their commitment to equality and diversity, some councils have created Young Employee Networks (YENs) which aim to help young people socialise, develop and learn skills alongside their peers. YENs often combine social events with professional support for young people to make the most out of their experience at the council. 

Find out more about YENs.

It is important for young employees to understand what career progression opportunities are available within the council. During reviews or appraisals, you will want to spend time with them and shape possible progression routes. Consider what skills or projects they may need to focus on to make the next step. If there are opportunities for promotions, the employee needs to know what they need to do to meet the requirements. In order to achieve this:

• consider who the employee might shadow or be mentored by
• use 1-2-1s and appraisals to establish the next progression step
• find out what experience they can gain from different services/teams
• stablish what training or qualifications are available.

The local government skills framework 

To deliver its vital services, councils require a varied skillset and experience. Whatever experience you may have or role you may be in, it is important to continuously review your skills and identify opportunities for development. The local government skills framework highlights skills that are important for our sector. Remember, there may be specific skills you need to concentrate on that are related to your role. 

You may want to use the local government skills framework with your line manager during your one to ones or annual appraisals to agree opportunities for developing your skills.

Local government skills framework