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Job description: Council Worker
Key to every community, local Councils provide a wide range of services to members in their district. As a Council Worker you'd be part of a huge team that serves the public in this way.
Duties can vary widely depending on your role, but your main responsibility would be to uphold the Council's standards.
Typical positions within a local Council can range from administration, carer, financial accountant, landscape gardener and IT technician, to policy officer, refuse collector, social worker, tourist information, teaching and urban designers.
For specific roles, please see the individual job descriptions.
Hours/Environment
For the large majority of roles you'd be working from 9am until 5pm, Monday to Friday. However, some roles may require weekend or night shift work.
Your working environment will depend on your position within the Council. Many jobs will involve working in an office environment while labour oriented roles, such as a refuse collector, are more likely to include work both indoors and out.
Skills and interests
To be a good Council Worker, you must have:
- good people skills
- good organisational skills
- IT skills
- good communication skills, both written and verbal
- an eye for detail
- a friendly manner
- ability to deal with a wide range of people
- ability to work under pressure
Entry
For many positions, there are no formal qualifications required for entry which is why local Councils have a great variety of people working for them. However, some positions will require a degree or equivalent, particularly if you're thinking of working in design or IT, finance and policy led positions.
Please see individual job descriptions for the qualifications or experience you'd need to get yourself noticed.
Training
Many councils run in-depth training initiatives, to help you to prepare for your role and build on your skills. The kind of support and training you'll receive is highly acclaimed, and is extremely valuable for career progression both within the public sector and outside of it.
Details of the training you'd receive in a particular role can be found in individual job descriptions. Here you will see what courses and qualifications are available to boost your skills.
Opportunities
As a trained Council Worker, you'd be able to transfer your skills easily to other sectors. Moving geographically to do your job somewhere else is also a viable option, with local Councils spread throughout the entire country.
Many roles will have outlined promotion routes for you to work towards too, details of which can be found in individual job descriptions.
Annual income
The average salary you can expect to receive as a Council Worker is around £15,000 - £22,000, although some roles will pay up to and above £30,000. These sums could rise considerably depending on role and experience.
Please see individual job descriptions for details on specific role salaries.
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