Democratic Services Apprentice

The apprentice will be working as part of our small Democratic Services Team. Each year, we ensure that council’s 100+ meetings are conducted efficiently and lawfully. You will need to be able to engage with a wide group of people including our councillors, senior members of staff and members of the public. You will get to know a wide range of colleagues from across the council.

Specific tasks you may undertake include:

• Making sure that council meeting rooms are set up correctly
• Help produce and circulate agendas to meet legal requirements
• Keep District, Parish and Town Councillor records up to date
• Respond to queries from councillors and the public in person, on the phone and by e-mail
• Support the induction of new councillors following the elections in May 2027

Please note that Democratic Services team is a small team, who are expected to serve all councillors, regardless of their political affiliation and so act in a “politically neutral” way. The role will be expected to support some evening meetings but we offer flexible working to assist. Whilst we do offer the opportunity to work from home some days, you will regularly be required to be present in our Market Harborough offices to post agendas and set up meetings.

Training

• Within the first 15 months additional training is delivered at Loughborough College, one morning a week for 12 weeks, dates are subject to enrolment date.
• Online portfolio to update with learning and development completed on-site
• Diarised visits from dedicated Trainer/Assessor
• On-the-job training
• Off-the-job training

After the apprenticeship

The successful candidate will be eligible to apply for internal vacancies within Harborough District Council.

Democratic Services can be a career in its own right, but also a useful starting role for future opportunities in administration, policy development or government / civil service roles.

Things to consider

Many people are attracted to Democratic Services as they enjoy politics. However, in our work, we have to be neutral and support all councillors, regardless of our or their views.

You will be working in an open plan office environment which can be noisy and you will not sit at the same desk every day. You may move around frequently and a lot of colleagues will be working from home so you need to be able to talk to them using Microsoft Teams.

You will be required to wear appropriate business attire and an identification badge.

The role is a combination of sitting down to deal with correspondence and moving around to help set up meeting rooms. You will be required to carry things and set up IT equipment. You will be provided training with how to set things up properly.

You may sometimes be required to help other services and teams in the Council with tasks reasonable to your role; for example, you may be asked to help the elections team.

You will be told in advance if you need to help with evening meetings and stay late in the office.