Ben's experience

I have loved my time on the Suffolk Graduate Partnership scheme, and am so grateful for the opportunities that it has given me. I have been lucky enough to work with and learn from such an incredible array of people, and have developed my skills and experience in areas that I didn’t even know existed.

I joined the scheme straight out of university, but I already had the local government bug. I’d been fortunate enough to be a part of the internship programme at West Suffolk District Council, and that only confirmed that I wanted to make a career in local government.

I started off at Babergh and Mid Suffolk District Councils, in the snappily titled ICT, Programmes and Information Governance Team. I worked on a number of key business transformation projects, most notably the first phase of the rollout of Microsoft Copilot within the councils. I also had the opportunity to support work improving our monitoring of greenhouse gas emissions and the very early prep work for Local Government Reorganisation. Alongside my core workload, I was lucky enough to work as an ED&I Champion at Babergh and Mid Suffolk Distrit Councils (BMSDC), delivering lunch and learn sessions and working with HR to roll out EDI programmes in the working depots as well as office spaces.

The experience I gained at Babergh and Mid served me incredibly well going into my second placement, in the HR Data and Systems Team at Suffolk County Council. As well as continuing my work with AI, I project managed the initial stages of the Enhancing Self Service in HR Project and supported the preparation of Suffolk Fire and Rescue for the proposed devolution process. Having really enjoyed organising events at BMSDC, I took the plunge and co-chaired our Young Adult’s Network for a year, including the delivery of the YAN Awards.

Of course, I can’t talk about the graduate scheme without mentioning the apprenticeship. Being able to apply the skills I was learning directly on the job (and, in a couple of cases, coming off an apprenticeship call immediately into a meeting where I needed to use what I had learned minutes before!) was invaluable.

One of the things that I particularly appreciated over the last two years is the opportunity to get involved with national and regional meetings and conferences. I attended an event in Lancaster, meeting and learning from other young professionals in local government, which I would wholeheartedly recommend. However, my personal highlight was the Tri-Sector Challenge. Leading my team- a mix of graduates and senior colleagues in the organisation, I got to role-play as a chief executive for a day, as I wrangled possibly the most-crisis hit set of councils that the fictional nation of Boroland had ever seen. The migraine did eventually go away!

Jokes aside, this was just one of the myriad of opportunities that I had to develop during my time on the scheme, and I’d like to thank everyone who I worked with over the two years for all their time, patience and advice. This has only deepened my desire to build a career in local government, and I can’t wait to see what is coming next!