Graduate - Climate and Sustainability

We are a hugely ambitious Council, working hard to build a sustainable organisation with a culture that rewards, values and recognises staff. We want to give everyone here the opportunity to grow and develop, personally and professionally. We are looking to recruit talented graduates to join our 2-year Graduate Scheme here at Somerset Council.

If you are looking for an impactful career, join us, and we’ll give you a wealth of experience and support – as you take on challenging, real-world projects that improve lives of our residents, communities and businesses in the beautiful county of Somerset.

We also promote a healthy work-life balance and offer flexible working arrangements wherever possible, including working from home.

The focus of this role is to help the Climate Team in the delivery of the Councils carbon reduction and nature recovery targets and support the programmes or work, actions and activities across the Council which deliver carbon savings and financial benefits.

Your learning and development will be supported within the Climate & Nature service to help you develop your customer, people, investigative and reporting skills.

Your main responsibilities will be to support our carbon reduction activities both within Somerset Council and across wider Somerset. Your day to day will involve:

• Working collaboratively with stakeholders from multiple teams across the council to collate, process and use your analytical skills to interpret carbon emission data to support our annual carbon baseline and the production of our annual carbon emissions reporting.
• Helping to deliver in-house climate awareness and carbon literacy training.
• Working closely with colleagues from the Highway operations service to support the delivery of the council ‘Live Labs 2’ project which is focused on reducing carbon emissions from highway maintenance programmes which is in its final year.
• Supporting other council carbon reduction actions and activities including the transition of our fleet to low carbon vehicles, the development of renewable energy technologies and energy efficient programmes across the council estate and support our work with wider partners across Somerset to cute area wide carbon emissions.

We offer ongoing support, training and guidance to help you be the best you can be. But it will really help if you have:

• Have knowledge of climate and carbon reduction strategies and policies, carbon baselining and renewable energy technologies.
• Have good communication and report writing skills.
• Are organised, and willing to lean new skills and develop your knowledge.
• Can work effectively on your own as well as part of a team.
• Have a relevant and recognised degree at a minimum of 2:2 attained within the last 3 years. We will accept applicants with a degree in any field.

We’re proud to be here for the people of Somerset. And that means everyone in Somerset. An important part of this is ensuring that we are as diverse and inclusive as the people and communities we serve.

We welcome applications from a diverse range of backgrounds and experiences to enrich our team. You can always contact the hiring manager for a chat if there’s anything you want to talk about before you apply.

We are proud to offer an environment that is supportive and rewarding, working as part of a team who are passionate about the work they do to improve the lives of people in Somerset.

We offer great training and development opportunities, with supportive management. As well as this, we have some fantastic employee benefits available:

• We promote a healthy work-life balance and offer flexible working arrangements wherever possible, including working from home.
• Generous annual leave allowance of 28 days per year (plus bank holidays), with the opportunity to purchase additional leave
• Staff discounts in gyms.
• Employee Assistance for the times you may need some support and a variety of employee wellbeing services.
• Auto enrolment onto our generous Pension Scheme and optional pension enhancement through our Additional Voluntary Contribution scheme.
• A Flexible Benefits Scheme via salary sacrifice to obtain a cycle for work and health screenings.
• My Staff Shop offering discounts in shops, online shopping, restaurants, cinema tickets, insurance benefits and more

For an informal chat about the role, you can contact Mark Fortune – Climate Strategy & Partnerships Manager – at Mark.fortune@somerset.gov.uk

The Salary for the role is Grade 12, £28,598 per annum, increasing in set increments as per the Graduate scheme to a final salary of Grade 11, £32,597 per annum.

The Graduate scheme is fixed term for a period of 2 years.

The Recruitment process for the Somerset Council Graduate Scheme will be structure into 2 stages, explained below:

• CV Submission – Sifted based on entry criteria
• Service specific formal interview – If successfully shortlisted from application, you will be invited to attend a formal interview with the specific service you have applied to.

Dates for these interviews are to be confirmed and will be carried out over MS Teams.

*Please only apply using the link at the bottom of the advert - please do not email your CV to the recruiting manager*

If you have everything you need, just hit the apply button. We can’t wait to hear from you!