Learning and Talent Development Consultant

About the role

Learning and Talent Development Consultant

Temporary (3 months), Full Time

£260 - £300 per day

Location: Chelmsford

Closing Date: 1st July 2026

The Role

Essex County Council (ECC) is one of the largest and most dynamic local authorities in the UK, serving a population of 2 million residents, and has a very successful track record of delivering transformational change. ECC anticipated change was needed in the public sector and has worked 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. 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.

The Opportunity

The Learning and Talent Development Consultant helps enable the success of the organisation by curating learning that supports the organisations leadership and management development, talent management and skills agendas making connections that grow individual, team, and organisation capabilities.

This role is key in building and enhancing workforce capacity and ability in relation to the development of future skills, critical capabilities, professional competencies and technical excellence through developing an innovative and inspiring people learning offer that is a combination of academic, experiential, digital and virtual learning that not only engage and motivates, but which also empowers leaders and their teams to take ownership of their development.

As Leaning and Talent Development Consultant you will be able to create a new culture of self-directed learning that harnesses technology and recognises the diverse needs of our learners with a focus on building a shared learning approach across the Council and wider system. You will provide expert advice and leverage innovative design methods that create engaging and bold, outcomes driven, learning experiences. Using your experience, observation and imagination to create compelling, engaging learning, that challenges the established norm demonstrating professional proficiency through the application of the consultancy model at a professional standard.

This role will require effective collaboration across People and Organisational Development and the entire organisation, working closely with the People Leads and key stakeholders across our Essex Digital Services to ensure successful development and delivery of our Digital and Data Capability, including Leadership and Management development along with other associated people interventions maximising the contribution, value and credibility this practice makes throughout the organisation.

Accountabilities

Influence and drive the design, implementation, and evaluation of learning interventions and initiatives to enhance overall effectiveness and performance, applying the full consultancy cycle and model to provide a service which builds capability, creates capacity, supports delivery, enhances professionalism, and enables productivity.
Identify, design and deliver people learning activities and interventions which integrate leading-edge approaches in learning and development, executed using a blended learning approach to enable the organisation to build critical skills and future capabilities, address skills gaps and enable professional growth and development aligning them with the business priorities, workforce strategy and the councils’ transformation agenda.
Proactively contribute to the management and development of the learning management system to increase utilisation, improve learner engagement and user experience and demonstrate measurable impact for individuals, teams and the organisation as a whole.
Actively participate in the development and evaluation of programmes and initiatives that support talent development.
Enhance organisational excellence by facilitating and delivering transformative Management and Leadership development courses.
Cultivating a high-performing culture through expert facilitation and impactful delivery.
Partner with People & OD teams to identify people learning solutions and approaches to learning and contribute to the ongoing discovery, development and delivery of scalable learning solutions across the organisation, conducting learning needs analysis where required to ensure delivery of a coherent, high quality and efficient learning and development work plan, that supports the Council in meeting its strategy
Evaluate the impact of learning initiatives, measuring key performance indicators and providing recommendations for continuous improvement and refinement of learning solutions.
Actively participate in the development and continuation of communities of practice and networks to share best practices, ensuring a cohesive approach to learning, development and talent management at all levels across the organisation.
Specific individual and shared targets and objectives are defined annually within the performance management framework.

The Experience You Will Bring

Educated to degree level in a relevant professional field such as learning and development, Human Resources or equivalent by experience.
Professional membership of CIPD at Chartered level or working towards this.
Evidence of continuing professional development and expert knowledge in relevant professional area.
Strong understanding of leading-edge learning and development theories and methods, with demonstrable experience of successful planning, designing, delivering and evaluating learning and development interventions in a large and complex organisation.
Proven track record of creating learning solutions for a variety of different audiences, with a highly collaborative approach, co-creating with clients and learners.
Experience in experiential learning, social learning, content curation and creation (authoring online content), interaction design, (learner) user journeys, user experience and testing.
Strong working knowledge of current business technology with experience of learning management systems, learning content platforms or any other learning technology solution to improve learner engagement and experience.
Excellent communication and influencing skills, with the ability to engage with a range of partners and stakeholders clearly articulate messages to a range of audiences with differing levels of understanding. Able to confidently manage multiple stakeholders’ expectations.
Knowledge of organisational barriers and enablers for management and transfer of knowledge across teams, with experience in supporting organisations to strengthen their learning culture.
Knowledge of design thinking and a good grasp of other modern learning design and delivery approaches with a genuine interest in the latest learning trends and technologies.
Strong organisational skills with the ability to manage a demanding and diverse workload, remaining effective and credible under pressure.
Demonstrable experience of developing capability, mitigating risks or delivering results through professional application of the consultancy model.
Strong experience in managing business transformation and change programmes and projects, with the ability to develop business cases, identify risks and create appropriate mitigation plans

Interviews for this role will be held on 20th and 21st July 2026.

To read more about us please visit: People and Transformation

Why Essex? Essex County Council has a location to be proud of. Our 1,300 square miles stretch from Constable Country to the Thames Estuary, from the dynamic M11 corridor to the traditional seaside resorts of Clacton and Walton. England’s oldest town, Colchester, and two of its newest – Basildon and Harlow – are right here. Along with the City of Chelmsford, the county town, they form our major population centres. It means real choice and makes Essex the ideal place for your career. Read more about us.

In March 2026, the Government announced that councils in Greater Essex will be reorganised into five new unitary authorities from April 2028. In addition to this, Greater Essex has been accepted on to the devolution priority programme, where we will work towards establishing a Mayoral Combined County Authority. You can read more about these changes, and what this may mean for this role, on our careers site

Essex County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We’re 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 require any reasonable adjustments during the process.

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

What you should do next

If you are interested in finding out more about this role, we would love to hear from you. Please apply via the Working for Essex website.

Please note that Essex County Council has determined that the off-payroll working rules will apply to this assignment and where a worker elects to provide their services through an intermediary (such as a personal services company) then income tax and primary national insurance contributions will be deducted at source from any payments made to the intermediary.

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.

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 anything further, please email essexsharedservices@essex.gov.uk

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