Local Community

Working in your community: Careers in Local Government

Councils are at the heart of the places we live, work, learn, shop, socialise and exercise. The responsibility for helping and protecting people, shaping and maintaining the environment and supporting local businesses and jobs in an area, is a fundamental part of the role of councils.

You might find that local government opportunities are more wide-ranging, and more interesting than you think and decide that local government is the right employer for you.

Local councils either provide services directly to the public or arrange for other organisations or companies to provide them.

Hear from local residents working in local government. Discover how a career as a landscape conservation officer at Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council works, learn about working in HR for Hertfordshire County Council, and explore careers in town planning at Dacorum Borough Council.

Local Government in Hertfordshire

WORKING IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Councils are increasingly innovating and changing the way they work, which makes it an exciting time to join them as an employee.

In order to provide the diverse range of services and functions, local government needs to employ people with the right skills, qualifications and/or experience.

There are a wide range of schemes being offered to attract young people including apprenticeships and graduate programmes. These opportunities demonstrate the importance that councils place on attracting young people into local government.

Apprenticeships develop key skills such as problem solving, team working and personal development and they also include a technical certificate or professional qualification which reflects the job role you will be doing. A great way to earn and learn.

Hear from these brilliant apprentices working in local government who are specialising in Estates, Legal, Accountancy, Business and Accountancy. 

THE BENEFITS OF JOINING LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Aside from the exciting range of opportunities to make a difference to your local community, councils are great places to work and for many people already provide an attractive employment package and working environment.

Pay and terms and conditions

Flexibility – with full time, part-time, term-time work options • Fair pay and pensions – local authorities pay competitive rates of pay with a growing number committing to a minimum of the Living Wage rate • The Local Government Pension Scheme is considered to be one of the best • Generous holiday allocation and public holidays • Career progression and relevant training • Job satisfaction • Maternity, paternity and adoption leave • Sickness scheme which is intended to supplement statutory entitlement and incapacity benefit.

Wellbeing and employee engagement

Local authorities have a key role to play in the health and wellbeing of their employees. Healthy, engaged and well-motivated employees have a positive impact on productivity and effectiveness and many councils have a range of programmes and initiatives to look after both their employees and the people they serve.

Equal opportunities

Councils have led the way in creating workplaces that are respectful of people’s differences, value and welcome diversity and deal quickly and efficiently with discrimination.

The different job roles in local government

There is a broad range of local government opportunities available on your doorstep in Hertfordshire. Roles in local and County Council offices can be ranging across; town planning, housing, environment, libraries, public health, finance, marketing, IT and business support. 

Councils are responsible for vital services in our community; people who live, work and visit the area and the businesses within, looking after everything that happens within the district and boroughs, supporting the community.

Some of the services and career opportunities you may be more familiar with are: 

• environmental and recycling services
• animal management
• parks and gardens
• parking
• maintaining our roads
• traffic management

There is also a wide range of roles that form part of these services, for example some different roles that are also part of working in local government are:

• care workers
• health nurses
• early years practitioners
• librarians
• fitness officers
• engineers and planners
• youth workers and working with young people
• diversity and inclusion officers. 

ROUTES INTO LOCAL GOVERNMENT CAREERS

Local government has an enormous range of jobs, opportunities for development and that working for a council provides a great starting point for your future career, wherever it may take you, to make a difference to the lives of people in local communities.

APPRENTICESHIPS 

Apprenticeships are one way to start a career in Local Government. If you enjoy working with people, examples of interesting and varied jobs within the sector span across:

social work and social care • administrative/customer services • public and media relations • educational services/psychologists • nursery nursing • leisure and tourism • youth work/teaching support work • fire control operators • interpreter/linguist • libraries/recreation • trading standards

A selection of apprenticeships include:

• Public Service Operational Delivery Officer - working in local and central government to ensure the public gets the services and protection they need
• Policy Officer - contribute to the development of policy
• Housing and Property Management - creating and sustaining successful tenancies in the private and social rented housing sectors
• Digital Support Technician - maximising the effective use of digital office technologies, productivity software and digital communications in organisations
• Community Health and Wellbeing Worker - to work in partnership with individuals and their communities to identify and address health and wellbeing needs, improve health, prevent ill-health and reduce inequalities
• Early Years Lead Practitioner - working directly with children, skilfully leading day to day practice
• Digital Accessibility Specialist - provide advice on accessibility best practice, helping organisations (externally and internally) to meet organisational, national and international accessibility standards
• Town Planning Assistant - work with, and provide technical and administrative support to chartered town planners
• Market Research Executive - research projects to generate data and insight
• Youth Support Worker - work in a supporting role with young people aged 11-25 to promote their personal, social and educational development

Go to our HOP pages on Apprenticeships for more information on how to become an apprentice. 

GRADUATES

Councils provide a range of career opportunities for graduates and often operate their own graduate schemes which include undergraduate and post graduate entry levels. Many jobs require degree level entry and these range from a specific occupational based qualification (like social work, town planning and environmental health) to more generic degree qualifications (such as business administration, management and economics). Councils employ professionals carrying out important roles in diverse areas and in addition there are many job roles in local government in interesting emerging areas.