Established for over 30 years, the Cambridgeshire County Council Training Scheme offers graduates an extraordinary opportunity for a rewarding career in public finance and internal audit, allowing you to influence key local authority decisions that matter to communities.
We are looking to recruit a number of enthusiastic and determined individuals to join our scheme, specialising in Financial Management. Successful applicants will have strong communication and analytical skills and be able to think creatively. You are not required to have any previous finance or accountancy experience.
Successful applicants will have, or will be expecting to achieve, a 2:1 degree or higher in any discipline and 3 Bs (or equivalent in UCAS points) at A-Level or equivalent recognised qualification.
All trainees will study for the CIPFA Professional Accountancy Qualification at the CIPFA Education Training Centre in London and, at the end of the three and a half years, qualify as a Chartered Public Finance Accountant. To find out more about the qualification, visit the CIPFA website: https://www.cipfa.org/.
For the 2026 intake we have 2 vacancies on the Financial Management stream. Expected start date is early September 2026.
Our benefits
* A comprehensive wellbeing package to cover all aspects of wellbeing, both in and out of work, which can also be accessed by your family.
* Buy up to 4 weeks additional annual leave (pro‑ratio) through our salary sacrifice scheme.
* Take your bank holidays flexibly to better suit your personal circumstances.
* Make Additional Voluntary Contributions (Shared AVCs) to your pension with tax and National Insurance savings.
* Access to development opportunities, apprenticeships and qualified coaches to support your personal and professional growth.
* Paid volunteering hours each year so you can make a positive impact on our community during your normal working day.
* Access to Peer Support Groups through our IDEAL staff equality, diversity and inclusion network.
* Opportunities to nominate and receive Employee Recognition Awards.
* An Our Cambs Rewards account, giving you access to in‑store and online discounts as well as our Car Lease and Cycle to Work schemes.
What will you be doing?
Over three and a half years, you will undertake different placements in Service Finance, Corporate Finance and Internal Audit on a 12‑month rotation cycle. This gives you a breadth of experience across the whole council and teaches you a wide range of technical and managerial skills, so you can learn where your interests lie and have the ability to pursue a career in your chosen area. Each placement will provide you with real responsibility from the start and a varied mix of monthly tasks and high‑level projects, supporting the needs of your CIPFA studies and your development as a public sector finance professional.
* Supporting a selection of budget managers, including service managers and directors, providing professional financial advice to inform their decision making and maximise their service delivery.
* Supporting services through budget setting and monitoring, and advising on resource allocation and savings proposals.
* Working on projects to procure new services, from care home provision to our major highways contract.
* Gaining a knowledge of technical accounting and working across public sector organisations such as NHS trusts and schools.
* Developing, completing and reporting on your own Internal Audit assignments to analyse and improve the council's control environment.
About you
Successful applicants will have, or will be expecting to achieve, a 2:1 degree or higher in any discipline and 3 Bs (or equivalent in UCAS points) at A-Level or equivalent recognised qualification. Please include details of all these qualifications with the grades or predicted grades in your application as they are the essential criteria.
Candidates should also demonstrate that they have the Experience, Knowledge, Skills and Behaviours detailed in the Person Specification pdf in the Supporting Statement section of their application.
As this is a training role it is not eligible for visa sponsorship for candidates who do not already possess the Right to Work in the UK. Successful applicants must have the Right to Work for the entire duration of the programme (3.5 years).
About us
Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, an urban centre in Cambridge, historic Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and St Ives as well as more rural landscapes.
Our four values are central to our culture, driving everything we do.
We are proud to serve the diverse communities of Cambridgeshire and want our workforce to be reflective of this diversity, which we firmly believe benefits our colleagues, the organisation and our communities. If you don't meet every single requirement in the job role but think this could be you, please don't be put off. We are committed to building a workplace that is compassionate and inclusive as well as diverse, so if you think you could be a good candidate for this role please consider applying and speak to the recruiting manager if you have any questions.
Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, along with our employee network 'IDEAL' and self‑organised peer support groups help us to foster an inclusive, supportive and safe working environment where people feel valued, respected, and empowered. We collect relevant diversity data for monitoring as part of the recruitment process to understand the diversity of our applicants and monitor any trends throughout the recruitment processes so that we can take meaningful action.
We are proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We fully support providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process, as well as when you join us, and we encourage candidates to contact the hiring manager to discuss any adjustment needs. Through a Guaranteed Interview Scheme, we will offer an interview to all applicants who disclose a disability and meet the essential criteria for a job vacancy. On your application form you can indicate you are disabled. Some examples of reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process could include additional time to complete an assessment or printing a document on pastel coloured paper with larger font size and line spacing. We would value talking about what might be possible to enable you to join us and thrive, so if there is something that would help you to do your best during your journey with us, please get in touch.
Visit our jobs and careers section to find out more about our wide range of learning and development opportunities; apprenticeships; our wellbeing package; staff benefits; our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion.
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