Anya has recently completed a level 3 accounting apprenticeship at Plymouth City Council. As she approached the end of her apprenticeship, she decided that she would take the opportunity to be part of the Local Government Apprentice of the Year event as she saw it as a chance to find out more about other apprentices and to develop her skills.
The role of local government is to provide essential services, encourage community development, and represent the interests of local residents. Local government apprentices undoubtably play an integral part in achieving this. The opportunity to showcase what an amazing job apprentices do within local government was one of the reasons that Catherine Jones from Plymouth City Council supported one of this year’s runners up, Anya Stevens, in attending the Local Government Apprentice of the Year 2025 event. She said
This event was an amazing way to showcase the work being done across local authorities and how incredible the next wave of leaders are. Our apprentices are a vital organ in the workforce and are instrumental in terms of ensuring continuous learning for our employees. This event enables the talents and skill of learners all over the country to come together, work collaboratively and produce some really great work and ideas to
take back to their organisations!”Catherine Jones, Plymouth City Council
Anya has recently completed a level 3 accounting apprenticeship at Plymouth City Council. As she approached the end of her apprenticeship, she decided that she would take the opportunity to be part of the Local Government Apprentice of the Year event as she saw it as a chance to find out more about other apprentices and to develop her skills.
The challenges the teams were set gave Anya insight into the day-to-day running of councils. By the end of the event, Anya reflected that she now has a better awareness of the amount of time required by councils before making decisions.
She also commented how this year’s event theme (housing) was relevant and gave her and the other apprentices a realistic experience.
It was nice to learn about the other apprentices’ jobs as I didn’t realise how many opportunities councils offered.”
Anya Stevens, Plymouth City Council
The event also emphasised to Anya how important team work is within local government. Anya got hands-on experience of collaboration and partnership working from different perspectives, including collectively putting together documents that the team could be proud of, learning from others, the importance of listening to different people’s views and facilitating conversations to ensure everyone felt included.
With her apprenticeship completed, Anya is now looking ahead to the next chapter in her career. She hopes that because of attending the event she has developed her communication skills and gained confidence when working with people she doesn’t know, which along with her new-found experience into the day-today running of councils, will support Anya as she takes the next step.