Graduate Procurement Trainee - Working for Essex

About the role

Graduate Procurement Trainee

Fixed Term, Full Time

£27,239 per annum

Location: Chelmsford

Closing Date: 5th January 2025

About Us:

Are you a Graduate, or will be graduating in Summer 2025? Do you want to make a real difference in our local community? Are you business-minded and ready to join one of the largest councils in the UK? Would you like to become a crucial part of a friendly and high-achieving team? If so, this could be the opportunity you are looking for!

This is a 3-year fixed-term contract.

Benefits:

Competitive starting salary with incremental salary increases
Healthy work life balance.
Flexible working (location and time) as standard so that you can achieve the right work/life balance. Please note, there will sometimes be days that you are required to attend in person, such as team office days and away days.
Wide range of learning and development opportunities
IT equipment and home-working equipment supplied
26 days annual leave + bank holidays + ability to buy further annual leave days should you wish to (subject to approval)
Generous Local Government Salary related pension scheme
Access to hundreds of discounts and benefits through Essex Reward
Access to our health and wellbeing support platform with Vita Health Group
Disability Confident Leader: we are committed to interview all disabled applicants who choose to apply under our Job Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum requirements of the job
Up to 4 days per annum volunteering leave
Paid for support (training, examinations, study-leave, textbooks and other associated study materials) to complete Level 4 CIPS Diploma, Level 5 CIPS Advanced Diploma, and Level 6 MCIPS Professional Diploma, in order to become a fully qualified Procurement professional.

In addition:

A mentor to guide you through the scheme, and a buddy to support your induction.

Employee support networks, to ensure everyone in treated with dignity and respect

Our People Plan 2021-2025 seeks to invest in our people, with a focus on diversity, equality and inclusion, collaboration and continuously understanding how to upskill our workforce.

The opportunity to contribute to the Essex community and be proud of the impact of your work.

Wider training and development opportunities; including Yellow Belt Six Sigma and Carbon Literacy accreditation.

What our Graduates say:

“I have really enjoyed working for Essex County Council as part of the Procurement Graduate Scheme because of the supportive environment that fosters both personal and professional growth. Every day is a new learning experience, with a range of different projects to work on, exposing me to various markets and allowing me to gain comprehensive experience across the entire procurement cycle. This is the perfect place to start your career in procurement. The opportunity to deliver projects that have a real and tangible impact on Essex-based residents is incredibly rewarding and motivates me to continuously strive for excellence in my role.”

Eileen Atwood, Procurement Graduate

“I love the Graduate Scheme because of the sheer range of different opportunities available to you. Rotating across three different teams means you see every aspect of the Procurement lifecycle and you develop a wider perspective as to how ECC supports its residents. You're trusted to work on projects of different scales and supported when you may not get everything right first time. There is a trust and relationship built with those around you in which they genuinely want you to succeed. As a Graduate Trainee, you are given every chance to develop your soft skills, through presenting to the wider team and stakeholders, and networking with procurement officials across the country. There is no better place to jumpstart your career, and life, journey than ECC.”

Harry Morgan, Procurement Graduate

The Role:

The Procurement function within Essex County Council is looking for the senior leaders of the future.

Procurement works with colleagues across the council, partners in the wider public sector, and with our supply chains to deliver innovative solutions for the people of Essex. The function leads the end-to-end procurement cycle with responsibility for category management, sourcing, contract management, and managing a supply chain whose reach is one of the largest in the public sector.

The Procurement Function manages an annual third party spend of £1.5bn and a contract portfolio of ~£5.8bn.

Our graduate programme will equip you with the skills and experience necessary to become a qualified Procurement professional (CIPS) and will fast-track you into a Procurement Manager role within Essex County Council.

The Graduate Procurement Trainee will undertake a comprehensive programme of training and development, through individually planned placements within the Procurement function over a three-year period to gain a broad knowledge of procurement practice and gain valuable skills. Further information can be found in our Graduate Brochure.

About you:

Ideally, we are seeking applicants with a degree in a relevant subject, but we will consider strong applicants irrespective of the degree subject.

Ideally, we are seeking applicants with GCSEs Grade A-C (4 and up) in both English & Maths (or international equivalent), but if you do not have these you will be required to complete functional skills in these subjects.

Ability to communicate effectively with people at all levels.

Ability to contribute to proposals and decisions.

Ability to work cooperatively with others to successfully achieve tasks and deliver results.

Willing to assist in developing solutions to tackle problems and achieving outcomes.

Ability to build relationships with others, both internally and externally to the organisation.

Working knowledge and understanding of Microsoft office packages.

Willing to study toward CIPS Level 4 and Level 5 diplomas, with the opportunity to go on to study for Level 6 and gain MCIPS accreditation.

Essential Requirements for the role:

Educated to RQF Level 6 (or expecting to graduate by Summer 2025) with a 2:1 in any subject OR a 2:2 with extenuating circumstances. Please detail any extenuating circumstances on your application for our screening team to assess AND

A minimum of two A-Levels Grade A-C (or international equivalent) OR a CIPS Level 3 Advanced Certificate in Procurement and Supply Operations AND

The right to work and study in England

Have been ordinarily resident in the UK or EEA for three years before the apprenticeship start date.

Please note that any offer made is conditional to you being able to provide all your qualification certificates. If you have international equivalent qualifications a NARIC Statement of Comparability must be provided; if you do not already hold one you can purchase online Statement of Comparability (enic.org.uk)

What will you be doing?

Fulfil a planned programme of rotations across some of the many categories within the Procurement function: Corporate; Economy & Investment; Climate, Environment & Customer Services; Adults with Disabilities; Older People.

Conduct robust research and analysis to ensure category plans are relevant, useful, and informative. Use these plans to create short, medium, and long-term strategies and action plans for individual categories.

Remain up to date with market conditions, shaping markets to achieve organisational goals and responding to change efficiently.

Lead the delivery of sourcing processes, ensuring compliance with the Authority’s Procurement Policy and Procedures.

Manage contracts and top tier suppliers to ensure that performance standards are achieved and any contractual, commercial or market risks are identified; to ensure appropriate mitigations are put in place

Support the Strategy and Assurance team to develop policies and procedures that promote cross-functional, best practice ways of working.

For more information, please have a read through our Graduate Brochure .

Why Essex?

Essex County Council (ECC) is one of the largest and most dynamic local authorities in the UK and we look after a large and diverse geographical region of the country.

Essex covers over 1,420 square miles and has over 1.8 million residents in a range of coastal, rural and urban communities. ECC has a very successful track record of delivering transformational change in the public sector and has worked hard to deliver better quality at lower cost. We have an ambitious transformation agenda – one with the scope to reach every part of the council. We are changing the way we think, the way we work, and the ways in which we deliver our services to support our residents.

We are committed to becoming a place where individuals, partners and communities feel proud to play their role and genuinely want to belong. We’re immensely proud of our flexible working options. Read more about us.

Essex County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We are committed to interview all disabled applicants who choose to apply under our Job Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum requirements of the job. Please speak to our Recruiters if you need any reasonable adjustments during the process.

We are also committed to interview all veterans and care leavers, who meet the minimum requirements of the role for which they are applying.

To read more about us please visit Corporate Services

Entry to Work: www.workingforessex.com/EntrytoWorkTeam

We are also recruiting for our Finance Graduate Scheme so please do take a moment to review this opportunity too.

How to apply

Seize the day! Discover your future in the Procurement Team by clicking the APPLY button now!

To be considered for this opportunity you must include a supporting statement as part of your application. Applications that are received without a supporting statement will be rejected immediately.

Please ensure your CV or supporting statement includes details of your Degree, A Level and GCSEs (or equivalent) grades. We may not be able to consider your application if these details aren’t readily available.

As part of employment with Essex County Council (ECC) should your role require a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service. The DBS update service ensures all registered DBS certificates are kept up to date and allows authorised parties to view the status of your certificate. This is an annual subscription, and you will be responsible for ensuring this is maintained. For further information on the DBS update service please go to https://www.gov.uk/dbs-update-service

Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.

Additional Information:

If you would like to be kept up to date on other relevant opportunities, blogs, news, events and industry related news at Essex County Council, please join The Essex Talent Community

If you have queries on this role or require further information, please email: work.placements@essex.gov.uk

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