Apprentice Receptionist at Brandhall Primary School
Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council
Oldbury (B68 0SH)
Closes in 15 days (Tuesday 25 November 2025 at 11:59pm)
Posted on 10 November 2025
Contents
Summary
A fantastic opportunity has arisen to be the ‘face’ of the school, as you will work on the main Reception Desk at Brandhall Primary School in Oldbury, providing effective customer service to our parents, visitors and staff.
- Wage
-
£12,759.50 for your first year, then could increase depending on your age
National Minimum Wage rate for apprentices
- Training course
- Customer service practitioner (level 2)
- Hours
-
Monday to Friday
Between 8am and 3.30pm
32 hours 30 minutes a week
- Start date
-
Monday 2 February 2026
- Duration
-
1 year 3 months
- Positions available
-
1
Work
Most of your apprenticeship is spent working. You’ll learn on the job by getting hands-on experience.
What you'll do at work
As a member of the school administration team, your main jobs and duties will consist of:
- Answering the telephone to take and relay messages
- Keeping a ‘to do list’ and completing tasks efficiently and in a timely fashion
- Dealing with queries from parents and visitors to the school
- Word processing/ accurate data entry
- Filing/ Photocopying
- Dealing with incoming/outgoing post
- Cash handling and balancing
- Using software and systems (with training)
- Producing the weekly school newsletter (with training)
- Placing orders with suppliers, chasing items not delivered, liaising with staff and suppliers around orders.
- Following procedures, being organised and recording accurately
- Undertake relevant and appropriate training related to the role as part of your personal development
- To undertake tasks keeping data protection and safeguarding in mind at all times
- Attend meetings
- Flexible to provide admin support to various team members
- Being committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. Any disclosures or concerns to be reported to the school’s safeguarding officer
- To carry out any other duties relevant to the post
Where you'll work
Brandhall Primary School
Brennand Road
Oldbury
B68 0SH
Training
Apprenticeships include time away from working for specialist training. You’ll study to gain professional knowledge and skills.
Training provider
SANDWELL COLLEGE
Training course
Customer service practitioner (level 2)
Understanding apprenticeship levels (opens in new tab)
What you'll learn
Course contents
- Use a range of questioning skills, including listening and responding in a way that builds rapport, determines customer needs and expectations and achieves positive engagement and delivery.
- Depending on your job role and work environment: Use appropriate verbal and non-verbal communication skills, along with summarising language during face-to-face communications; and/or
- Depending on your job role and work environment: Use appropriate communication skills, along with reinforcement techniques (to confirm understanding) during non-facing customer interactions.
- Depending on your job role and work environment: Use an appropriate ‘tone of voice’ in all communications, including written and digital, that reflect the organisation’s brand.
- Provide clear explanations and offer options in order to help customers make choices that are mutually beneficial to both the customer and your organisation.
- Be able to organise yourself, prioritise your own workload/activity and work to meet deadlines.
- Demonstrate patience and calmness.
- Show you understand the customer’s point of view.
- Use appropriate sign-posting or resolution to meet your customers needs and manage expectations.
- Maintain informative communication during service recovery.
Training schedule
The apprenticeship training will be delivered in the workplace, as you will receive regular visits from a college assessor
Requirements
Essential qualifications
GCSE in:
- English (grade 9-4/A-C)
- Maths (grade 9-3/A-D)
Other in:
- English (grade Level 2)
- Maths (grade Level 1/2)
Share if you have other relevant qualifications and industry experience. The apprenticeship can be adjusted to reflect what you already know.
Skills
- Communication skills
- IT skills
- Attention to detail
- Organisation skills
- Customer care skills
- Problem solving skills
- Presentation skills
- Administrative skills
- Number skills
- Analytical skills
- Logical
- Team working
- Creative
- Initiative
- Non judgemental
- Patience
- Adhere to data protection
- Safeguarding
- Empathy
- Reliability
- Friendly
- Professionalism
Other requirements
Proof of qualification certificates will be required during the recruitment process. You will need to have a mature and professional approach and have a due regard for Safeguarding and Child Protection; therefore, you will be required to undertake an Enhanced DBS check, prior to commencing in the post. Please be aware that you will come into contact with sensitive information, of which data security must be maintained. You will need to be flexible and be very confident in talking to people at all levels. This position will ideally suit someone who is interested in working from an office location in a busy customer facing/administrative environment. You will need to be very confident in talking to people at all levels, as well as being flexible to support the needs of the post. You must be willing to shadow senior post holders and attend any relevant training. Annual Leave must be taken when the school is closed, during term time holidays.
About this employer
Sandwell is a large, multicultural metropolitan borough situated in the heart of the Black Country, to the west of Birmingham, within the West Midlands conurbation and with a population of over 280,000. The Council is one of the largest employers in the Borough with employees in a variety of occupations, providing a comprehensive range of services. For more information about Sandwell Council’s apprenticeship programme and our recruitment process please visit our YouTube channel. Find out more information on Sandwell’s Values and Behaviours on the council’s webpage. For more information on careers in local government you can view a copy of the Local Government Career Guide.
http://www.brandhall.sandwell.sch.uk (opens in new tab)
Disability Confident
A fair proportion of interviews for this apprenticeship will be offered to applicants with a disability or long-term health condition. This includes non-visible disabilities and conditions.
You can choose to be considered for an interview under the Disability Confident scheme. You’ll need to meet the essential requirements to be considered for an interview.
After this apprenticeship
- This apprenticeship is a fixed term 15 month contract and at the end you will gain a Level 2 Customer Service Practitioner Qualification
- However, the skills, knowledge and experience gained in this apprenticeship will allow you to gain future opportunities in the sector
Ask a question
The contact for this apprenticeship is:
SANDWELL COLLEGE
elle_walker@sandwell.gov.uk
The reference code for this apprenticeship is VAC1000350608.
Apply now
Closes in 15 days (Tuesday 25 November 2025 at 11:59pm)
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