East Suffolk Council, Melton (IP12 1RT) Year 1 - £16,341 per annum; Year 2 – £24,521 per annum (NLW) 37 hours per week 21-month training contract Start date – 14 th September 2026 East Suffolk Council is an exciting place to work and a great place to make a real difference to people’s lives, delivering vital services to a quarter of a million people across East Suffolk. We have an established and successful apprenticeship scheme, which has seen over 80% of apprentices stay on beyond their apprenticeships to develop promising careers with the Council. If you are looking for an exciting opportunity where you can earn money as well as gaining experience and a recognised qualification, then look no further! A unique opportunity has arisen for an enthusiastic apprentice to join East Suffolk Council as a Community Engagement Apprentice in our Communities Team. Your role This exciting and unique opportunity will involve providing project and administrative support to the Communities Team and to the wider organisation, specifically in relation to community engagement. We have to understand the needs of our communities even more intimately so that we can use that insight to design services and fund and deliver projects that work more effectively for our residents. This is particularly important as we redesign many services through the Local Government Reorganisation process. You will assist our Engagement Lead with delivering more, and more effective, community engagement work. This will cover the full suite of engagement activity, including strategy, survey design, promotion, optimisation, data analysis, co-production and report writing. You’ll have the chance to work hands-on with a large number of varied community engagement projects, everything from online surveys to in-person workshops, and potentially including work on nationally-recognised programmes like Marmot Place and Pride in Place. You’ll learn about engagement strategy, the soft skills and behaviours required to be an effective engagement professional, how to engage with different audiences, project management, marketing and communications, working with varied stakeholders, working with data, monitoring and evaluation, reporting and budgeting – and much more. The engagement activity you’ll be working on ranges from planning consultations to co-production of health services through our Marmot programme, small-scale local engagement to district-wide engagement with thousands of responses. You’ll be in the perfect position to optimise this work and, in doing so, make a real difference to the lives of East Suffolk residents. Your administrative duties will include updating web content, creating surveys, writing reports and assisting at face-to-face engagement activity. We can offer an interesting and varied work programme, a positive team environment, and the opportunity to get involved in a variety of tasks at different levels and to lead projects of your own. Apprenticeship open evening! We are pleased to announce that we will be holding two open evenings at our Melton and Lowestoft offices. This will give you the opportunity to find out more about East Suffolk Council’s apprenticeship scheme, learn more about each of our available opportunities direct from the placement managers and ask any questions you have. The open evenings are taking place on the following dates - Tuesday 12 th May 2026, 5.30pm – 7.00pm at the East Suffolk House offices (Riduna Park, Station Road, Melton, Woodbridge IP12 1RT) Thursday 14 th May 2026, 5.30pm – 7.00pm at the Riverside Offices (4 Canning Road, Lowestoft, NR33 0EQ) Please email HR@eastsuffolk.gov.uk to book your place at one of our open evenings. You will need: You will need to have excellent interpersonal skills, an aptitude for ICT and be educated to A-level standard or equivalent. You will also have English and Maths GCSEs at Grades 4 -9 or Grade C and above (or equivalent). No previous experience is required, as full training will be provided, however a passion to be a positive and professional ambassador for the council and provide the best experience for our customers is a must. Why work for us? East Suffolk Council is a great place to work and there are lots of benefits our employees can access. To find out more about why we are so proud of East Suffolk Council, take a look at our video and hear why our employees think it is such a great place to work. Our apprentices have worked together to create a video to tell you a little bit about their experience of being an apprentice at East Suffolk Council, which we hope you find insightful. Here are some of the main benefits: A fully funded and supported Level 3 Business Administration qualification. Generous holiday entitlement (equivalent to 25 days a year, increasing to 31 days after 5 years’ service, plus bank holidays) Flexible working arrangements Local government pension scheme The opportunity to meet and work alongside other apprentices in the organisation. Great training and development opportunities to add to your CV. A wide variety of staff support networks including access to health and wellbeing initiatives and programmes. Discounts on mobile phones, computers, holiday and travel, fashion and clothing, health and beauty and many other products and services. Please see our benefits brochure for further information. For an informal discussion regarding this post, please contact Rachel Tucker on 07709376791 or email HR@eastsuffolk.gov.uk. If you think you could bring enthusiasm, fresh ideas and a different perspective to East Suffolk Council, we would like to hear from you! Closing date: 11.30pm, 8 th June 2026 Interview date: w/c 29 th June 2026 and w/c 6 th July 2026 How to apply Step 1 - Read the advert and the Job Description and Person Specification. Step 2 - Complete the Supporting Statement template. Your statement needs to indicate how you meet each of the criteria contained within the Person Specification. Please use the template provided (other formats will not be accepted). Step 3 - Complete the online application and upload your statement. Please note, CV’s are not accepted. For more information, check out the How to Apply section of our Career Site. East Suffolk Council is an exciting place to work and a great place to make a real difference to people’s lives, delivering vital services to a quarter of a million people across East Suffolk. We hugely value our staff and know that in order for us to remain successful, it is essential for us to recognise talented employees, developing and retaining them within the organisation. We are therefore committed to investing in our staff and providing first-class support to ensure a positive culture and rewarding careers. To find out more about why we are so proud of East Suffolk Council and to hear why our employees think it is such a great place to work, take a look at our video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSWedQksWt0