Vacancies

Social Work Apprentice, Adults

Please Note: The application deadline for this job has now passed.

About the role

If you are looking to start your career in Social Work, then this could be the career development opportunity for you.

We’re delighted you are interested in applying to join our Social Work Apprenticeship programme. It is a wonderful opportunity to work in one of our friendly Adult Social Care Teams whilst completing the BA (Hons) Social Work Apprenticeship and qualifying as a Social Worker. We have 20 Adult Social Work Apprenticeship positions available across our Community Teams starting in January 2025. This will offer you a unique opportunity to study for a fully funded social work degree with our partner University of East Anglia (UEA), while working for the Council. Once you complete your apprenticeship, you will progress onto our Newly Qualified Social Worker programme, which provides a further 12 months of development and support.

We have developed an applicant guidance's pack that gives you more information about how to apply, an overview of the recruitment process, the programme you will be undertaking as well as information about Cambridgeshire. Please do take time to read this as it will support you with your application. We are holding two drop-in sessions where you can find out more information and hear from one of our current Adult Social Work Apprentices, teaching staff from UEA and colleagues from the council. Information on how to book onto one of these sessions is included in the guidance pack.

When you complete your supporting statement be sure you cover the 3 key areas we would like to know about you. These are:

Tell us about your work or life experience that brings you to apply to become a Social Work Apprentice
What skills do you have and what skills do you hope to develop to become a Social Worker
What do you think someone with care and support needs would most value in a Social Worker?

For more information or to chat about this opportunity please contact: SocialWork.Apprenticeships@cambridgeshire.gov.uk

What will you be doing?

Through the 3-year apprenticeship programme you will gain experience of working in a range of social work settings within the council, and develop a range of social work values, knowledge and skills that are required to support people of Cambridgeshire who have Care and Support needs. Your learning will be developed through a programme of work experience, academic study, reflective spaces and practice placements. You will be supported by an academic team at UEA, mentors within your team and a dedicated team of Adult Social Care Development Practice Leads within the Council, who will work alongside you during the 3-year programme. You will attend regular teaching sessions, workshops, seminars and tutorials.

Great Social Workers support the people of Cambridgeshire to live fulfilling, healthy, safe and independent lives through timely support that is most suited to their needs. In Cambridgeshire this is important to us because we’re committed to being, greener, fairer and more caring. We demonstrate this through our values of Collaborative, Accountable, Respectful and focused on Excellence.

We are looking for people who are passionate about making a difference in the lives of vulnerable adults and are eager to learn and grow in the field of social work.

Our benefits

We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits in addition to the basics like annual leave, sick pay, pension and mileage…

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-rata) 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

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 Employer. 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, whose details can be found in the advert, to discuss any adjustment needs. Some examples of adjustments 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.

https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/council/jobs-and-careers