Apprenticeships and Early Careers

Whether you’re a school leaver, a graduate or considering making a career change, we have a variety of programmes available that will enable you to develop skills on the job, learn from and shadow our experienced colleagues and help shape our future and improve outcomes for our communities. As an organisation we’re committed to growing our own talent to ensure we’re able to deliver the vital services our communities need, as well as adapting our approach to service delivery in the future.

Prior experience isn’t necessary for our early careers programmes, instead we’re looking for individuals who: 

• Are passionate about making a difference
• Are keen to learn
• Have potential and a positive attitude
• Are keen to share their ideas
• Will embrace and promote our values and culture

Our apprenticeships and early programmes are available across the majority of our different Council departments, which you can learn more about here.

‍Apprenticeships - Earn while you learn!‍

We are really proud to offer a wide range of apprenticeship schemes for anyone aged 16 and over and not in full time education. Our apprentices combine full-time work and simultaneously study, for a nationally recognised qualification under the management and guidance of our experienced staff. The qualifications on offer range from GCSE (or equivalent) to Degree level. This is an ideal opportunity for those leaving education or seeking to start a career in a new field and gain new experience.

We’re extremely proud of our apprentices, many of whom have gone on to secure permanent roles within the Council and progressed into senior positions. Whether you decide to remain with the Council or move on, apprenticeships offer you that stepping stone and opportunity to shape your career and future.

More details on the wide range of apprenticeships are available to view on the Institute for Apprenticeships website.

Graduate Schemes‍

From time to time we will advertise Graduate Trainee opportunities in our different service areas, offering the chance to:

• Undertake a structured learning and development programme in a supportive environment
• Benefit from working towards a clear career pathway, earning whilst you learn
• Experience a variety of placements on rotation, enabling you to learn more about working in a number of different departments

Details of graduate roles will be advertised on this page, as and when they are available.

In addition, Kingston also takes part in the Local Government Association Impact Graduate Programme which is run on an annual basis, full details can be found here.

Work Experience
Working alongside our apprenticeship and graduate schemes as part of our early careers strategy, we’re committed to offering work placement opportunities across a number of our different service areas.

Work experience placements are flexible and dependent on the circumstances and duration, therefore they can be paid or unpaid. Paid work experience placements are paid in line with the London living Wage. 

Our opportunities are available to:

• Students either in school/college/university 
• Those that are no longer in education
• People that live inside or outside of our borough

The council does not apply an upper age limit and welcomes applications from mature students or those looking to change their careers. 

We have a number of different types of placements on offer:

• 2 weeks, unpaid work placements - these are for students who are still in school
• Up to 2 weeks (or longer if mutually agreed) unpaid/paid work placements - these are for those that are no longer in a school environment and ready to start their careers.  

To make a work placement meaningful, we are committed to ensuring that you obtain valuable experience and knowledge to enhance your skill set, whilst offering you the opportunity to trial out a career opportunity in one of our service areas.

If you are interested in a potential work experience placement, we ask that you email your CV and a short cover letter outlining what interests you about undertaking a work experience placement in Kingston and an indication of what services/teams you would like to put yourself forward for and why to recruitment@kingston.gov.uk

Please note, that each application will be considered and shared with relevant services as per the preferences in your application, but we are unable to guarantee that we will be able to offer a work experience placement to all applicants, due to availability and priorities in each service.