Marketing and Communications Apprentice

Are you looking to develop a career in government communications? We’re looking for a passionate and committed apprentice to join our team. This is a fantastic opportunity to work across all aspects of marketing and communications, as part of a high performing, fast paced and creative team focused on showcasing how procurement and commercial activity creates value for the nation.

Job Summary

As part of a marketing and communications team of 35, you will work across a range of disciplines including marketing, internal communications, external communications, events and digital, helping to successfully deliver a wide range of marcomms activities. At the same time you will develop your professional skills and knowledge in marketing and communications through the <u>L4 Public Relations and Communications Assistant apprenticeship</u>.

From helping to organise internal staff engagement events to creating impactful marketing content, in a typical day you could be designing social media posts, supporting a video shoot, collating performance data and proofreading editorial. 

An Apprenticeship provides work-based, on the job training and development. The training is fully funded so it doesn’t cost you anything – and you’ll earn whilst you learn. They provide you with the skills, knowledge and behaviours you need to be fully effective in a designated role. With very few exceptions, you don’t need to have related work experience/ qualifications to apply.

What’s important throughout the Apprenticeship is that you put into practice what you learn, and capture evidence of this so your progress and increasing capability can be assessed.

We want you to get the most out of your Apprenticeship. To help you manage your learning we’ll give you, over the duration of the Apprenticeship, a minimum of 20% of your paid working hours to focus on skills development. This means you won’t be asked to study in your own time.

However, both the role and the Apprenticeship are very demanding and you’ll need to work hard. You will be assessed throughout, and at the end, of your Apprenticeship by submitting coursework, undertaking exams and presenting your work to others.

There is plenty of support, you’ll be part of a larger apprentice community and where possible we’ll get you involved in apprenticeship related activities, so you’ll get to know people outside of your own team or Department. 

Apprenticeship Eligibility Criteria:

This is a development role so to be eligible to apply, the training and development you receive during this apprenticeship must provide you with significant new skills and learning. This is an essential requirement for apprenticeship funding and means you must not already be over-qualified or over-experienced in this type of work.

In addition, you must:

• As this is an apprenticeship role, you must:
• Be based in England 
• Have 5 GCSEs at grades 4-9 (A*-C) or equivalent, including English and Maths
• Have the equivalent of 2 A-levels, preferably including a communications related subject, for example English Literature or English Language (but not essential)
• Not be in full-time education
• Not already hold a level 4 qualification, including a degree, in a communications-related field
• Not be enrolled on any other apprenticeship

About the apprenticeship programme:

The successful candidate will start the L4 Public Relations and Communications Assistant apprenticeship in November 2026. This will include 6 in-person learning sessions in London over the 15 month programme period. There will also be some virtual learning sessions that you will be required to attend.

Key Accountabilities:

• Draft, proofread and maintain content across a range of channels including social media, newsletters, intranet and website.
• Support the creation of engaging and accessible material that meets government standards and internal brand and style guidelines.
• Assist with photography, video recording and basic content editing
• Monitor social media channels, respond to routine enquiries and schedule posts using approved content management tools.
• Track performance metrics, compiling reports and supporting insight and evaluation activities.
• Assist with planning and logistics for marketing and communications activity, maintaining accurate rotas, files, records and audit trails.
• Support internal and external stakeholder communications, helping to maintain databases, send emails and arrange meetings and briefings.
• Monitor media coverage and compile summaries to support the team's awareness of relevant and topical issues and activity.
• Provide support for marketing and communications activity, coordinating meetings and tracking actions to ensure the smooth running of team activity, managing the distribution of materials and helping maintain guidance documents.

Essential Criteria (to be assessed at application stage):

• Strong communication skills: interpersonal, written, presentation and verbal 
• Excellent organisational skills and attention to detail
• Ability to work effectively as part of a team, contributing to shared goals and fostering a positive team environment
• Flexible, proactive and able to work under pressure to deadlines
• A basic understanding of digital and social media platforms, with the ability to quickly adapt to new software

Behaviours:

• Working Together
• Managing a quality of service
• Delivering at Pace

Technical:

As part of the interview process, you will be asked to prepare a short presentation. Details will be shared closer to the time. This will be used to assess your communication skills, clarity of thinking, and enthusiasm for marketing and communications, rather than prior technical knowledge or experience. We'll assess you against Implementation behaviour level 1 of the GCS Competency Framework.

What we will offer you, here are some of the benefits you can expect:

• Competitive salary 
• Generous pension scheme
• A discretionary non-contractual performance related bonus 
• Working remotely in addition to working in advertised office location
• Flexi time scheme (available for B1-B6)
• Minimum 25 days annual leave to a maximum service related 30 days excluding bank holidays

Working flexibly, delivering outcomes

CCS is a flexible business with a smarter working model where our colleagues benefit from a mix of home and office working. Successful candidates are expected to work from one of the office locations listed. Our current office attendance approach requires a minimum of 26 days per quarter (approx 2 days per week, which may be subject to change) in CCS office locations or off site meetings with suppliers, customers, partners, networking / industry events.

This is pro rata for those who work part time. Our smarter working principles mean that our people have the advantage of both office and offsite based collaboration and learning, as well as working from home. This way of working allows us to honour our commitment to being a responsible business, offer flexibility and better work life balance as well as ensuring we deliver our business with confidence and in accordance with our CCS values.