Applying for a council job without experience

Councils hire people with no experience into roles such as customer service, library work and waste collection, and councils also offer apprenticeships. Some of these jobs set no formal qualifications. Others ask for English and maths GCSEs, or for some experience from volunteering or a previous job. What you need depends on the post, so read the person specification and look at what it lists as essential.

Roles that take people at entry level

The National Careers Service profiles for three common council roles show how much the requirements differ.

Role	Starter salary	Hours	How people get in
Customer service assistant	£20,000	37 to 40	Foundation apprenticeship needs no specific qualifications; or direct application with customer service experience and some GCSEs
Library assistant	£22,000	30 to 37	Level 3 apprenticeship, or direct application, where some library or similar experience is expected
Bin worker	£24,000	38 to 40	Direct application or a level 2 apprenticeship; over 18; an LGV licence to drive the lorry

These are national figures for the job in general, not council pay. Councils pay on their own grades, mostly the NJC pay spine, and many adverts quote full-time equivalent figures. For the roles themselves, see Council customer service adviser and Library assistant jobs.

The bin worker profile says there were no apprenticeship vacancies for the role in England when it was checked, so direct application is the likely route. Bin work involves shifts that can include evenings, weekends and bank holidays, and library work often includes evening and weekend shifts.

Apprenticeships

An apprenticeship is the clearest way in with no experience. GOV.UK says you must be 16 or over, living in England and not in full-time education. You are an employee, with a wage and holiday pay, and training is at least 20 per cent of your normal working hours. Apprenticeships run from 8 months to 6 years depending on level.

Pay is set out on GOV.UK. Apprentices aged 16 to 18, and those aged 19 or over in their first year, get at least £8 an hour from 1 April 2026. After the first year, those aged 19 or over get the minimum wage for their age. Employers can pay more. You get at least 20 days’ paid holiday plus bank holidays. Apprenticeships in the public sector explains levels and what councils offer.

The GOV.UK guide above is written for England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own apprenticeship schemes, so check their government sites if you live there.

Showing skills when you have no council experience

Council shortlisting is scored against the person specification, so match your examples to it. The experience a panel counts need not be paid council work. The National Careers Service names volunteering at local authority or community libraries as a route into library work, and customer service experience as useful for customer service posts. Volunteering to get experience covers what counts and the checks that may apply.

Use what you have done in other settings: shops, call centres, care, hospitality, caring for family. Look at each essential criterion and choose one real example for it, using the STAR method. If you are applying for a role with an essential qualification you do not have, an application is unlikely to succeed. The apprenticeship version of the job may still be open to you.

Finding the vacancies

Councils advertise on their own websites, so check the council that covers where you live and the ones next to it. The National Careers Service pages for these roles tell you the usual job titles to search for: customer service assistant, library assistant, bin worker. Apprenticeship vacancies are advertised through the GOV.UK Find an apprenticeship service, which the apprenticeships guide links to. Where councils advertise jobs lists the main sites.

How to get a council job covers the application, grades and interview stages that follow.