Impact: The Local Government Graduate Programme application

Stages of the application process

The application process for Impact has been designed to measure the following key skills and behaviours. These are not conditional on your prior work or life experience, but they will show you what it’s like to work in a local council. 

1. Working with others
   Works collaboratively across diverse teams demonstrating sensitivity and respect for individual differences in terms of background, needs, and perspectives. Asks questions and is open to challenge in the pursuit of mutually beneficial solutions.  
2. Effective communication
   Articulates information with clarity and purpose both orally and in writing and can adapt approach to meet the needs of the audience. Actively listens to ensure understanding and balances opinions with evidence to achieve impact.
3. Planning and organisation
   Proactively manages own workload effectively and efficiently to balance multiple and varied demands. Is comfortable working on multiple projects or tasks, drawing on effective strategies, tools, and techniques to prioritise tasks.  
4. Results focused and adaptability
   Takes responsibility for getting things done and meeting expectations, with the flexibility to adapt approach in response to changing priorities or new information. Considers the implications of their decisions and actions and remains positive in the face of challenge or setbacks.
5. Analysis and problem solving 
   Accurately interprets information from different sources, including numerical and non-numerical data, to gain insight, solve problems, and draw evidence-based conclusions. Effectively makes links between different sources to identify key trends.
6. Motivation for learning and personal resilience
   Proactively seeks out opportunities, both formal and informal, to learn and develop. Values continuous learning, development, and self-improvement. Demonstrates the resilience to manage conflicting priorities and recognises the importance of self-care and boundary setting.
7. Commitment to local government and the wider community 
   Is passionate and enthusiastic about serving and supporting the needs and interests of the local community and achieving a meaningful impact through the work. Recognises the broader political/economic landscape on local initiatives and how own actions can have a positive impact.
8. Leadership potential
   Recognises the importance of leading by example through their own work ethic and values. Is comfortable working independently and taking ownership of tasks, whilst providing support and leadership to others. 

The first stage of the process requires you to sit an online test designed specifically for the programme - a situational judgement test (SJT) - created to examine your response to realistic workplace situations and your understanding of the key skills and behaviours. It has been developed in partnership with managers in councils and graduates on our programme to provide the right level of difficulty, and to give you an insight into what you may experience on the programme. The best way to prepare is to review our key skills and behaviours, and to practice, so we recommend you review our sample SJT questions. 

We want to take the guesswork out of assessment. The Impact is all about finding graduates with the right balance of our key skills and behaviours, which you’ll find listed on this page. This might still feel like a bit of a mystery to you, so here are our top tips for the assessment process:

• Read up on local government so you understand what working in the sector might be like: what kind of areas are councils working in, and what issues are they facing.
• Try attending or watching a recording of one of our webinars to find out more about the programme and the assessment process.
• Check out our Why local government? page for more information and some helpful links, but something as simple as looking on your own local council’s website and reading some local news are a great start.
• Practice as much as you can! Sceptical about assessment centres, or uncertain of what they involve? We have a coaching offer and support available from the Impact BAME Network.
• The final step is interviewing with local councils, and we'll provide guidance around this too.
• If you are a current student, don’t hesitate to contact your careers service for any additional training sessions they might be delivering.
• If you’ve had extra time to complete assessments at university, you have a disability, or you feel that you would benefit from additional support in our assessment process, please get in touch with us before you complete any of your assessments. Our team will arrange a confidential conversation with you and make recommendations on this basis. No information is passed on to local authorities without your consent, and requesting or being granted any more of assistance will not disadvantage your application at all. We are not able to apply any retroactive support or consideration, so please get in touch from the start on [email protected].

Impact are delivering a set of virtual workshops during Autumn 2024 to equip candidates for their application process. You can find a link to join the virtual workshops under our Events page and recordings from the events will be made available below.