Centred Design Apprentice (Service Designer Level 6 Apprenticeship)
Essex County Council
Essex (CM1 1QH)
Closes in 10 days (Sunday 5 July 2026 at 11:59pm)
Posted on 25 June 2026
Contents
Summary
As a User-Centred Design Apprentice, you’ll work as part of a team designing inclusive services based on real user needs. You’ll help understand and improve services from end-to-end, looking at both the user experience and how services are delivered behind the scenes.
- Wage
-
£28,003 a year
Minimum wage rates (opens in new tab)
£28,003 - £32,944 per annum
Fixed Term Contract – 24 months
Full Time - Anywhere Worker
- Training course
- Service designer (level 6)
- Hours
-
Fixed Term Contract – 24 months.
Full-Time.
Anywhere Worker .
Please note this vacancy is available as a fixed term contract or secondment opportunity for up to 24 months.
37 hours a week
- Start date
-
Tuesday 1 September 2026
- Duration
-
2 years
- 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
- Support the promotion of user-centred design across the council by working in the open, sharing learning with colleagues, and helping to raise awareness and understanding of the diversity of users of government services.
- Work as part of multidisciplinary teams to support the design of end-to-end digital services that meet user needs and business objectives within identified constraints and standards.
- Use established service patterns and standards to help create consistent user experiences across services, as well as efficient service delivery built on common components.
- Contribute to iterative design cycles by helping prototype ideas at a range of fidelities, assisting with gathering feedback and making updates to designs based on evidence.
- Support the planning, facilitation, analysis and documentation of user research activities.
- Use qualitative and quantitative data to assist in mapping user journeys and summarising findings into clear, accessible insights that inform design decisions.
- Use appropriate tools, visualisations and communication methods to help explain user needs, challenges, and design ideas to colleagues and stakeholders and build shared understanding.
- Support the design of services that consider both internal processes and external user experiences. Help identify opportunities where design improvements can contribute to more effective and efficient service delivery.
- Support ethical research practice by following defined consent, privacy and equality processes.
- Specific individual and shared targets and objectives are defined annually within the performance management framework.
You will work collaboratively with others to:
- Carry out user research to understand people’s needs
- Map user journeys to show how people experience services
- identify pain points and opportunities for improvement
- Design, prototype and test new ideas
- Share what you learn and help build understanding of user-centred design across the council
During the apprenticeship, you will develop the skills, knowledge and practical experience to:
- Design end-to-end services
- Map user journeys and identify opportunities for improvement
- Prototype and test solutions with users
- Use data to evaluate and improve services
Where you'll work
County Hall
Market Road
Chelmsford
Essex
CM1 1QH
Training
Apprenticeships include time away from working for specialist training. You’ll study to gain professional knowledge and skills.
Training provider
JGA LIMITED
Training course
Service designer (level 6)
Understanding apprenticeship levels (opens in new tab)
What you'll learn
Course contents
- Champion and advocate the benefits of service design and user centred solutions.
- Interpret, analyse, and challenge a design brief.
- Systematically analyse and apply problem-solving techniques to complex service design challenges.
- Use service design methods to design new propositions, products, and services, and improve existing ones.
- Co-design, workshop, and facilitation of service design activities with stakeholders and users.
- Map the current and future states of a service journey collating information from multiple sources to form a single view of the service.
- Select, formulate and apply qualitative and quantitative user research methods and approaches.
- Analyse and evaluate findings from qualitative and quantitative research methods to understand and prioritise user needs.
- Evaluate arguments, assumptions, abstract concepts, and data to make judgements, and develop questions to achieve a solution to a problem.
- Select and use ideation methods to generate multiple solutions to complex problems.
- Prioritise potential solutions to select which to take forward to further development.
- Prototype concepts and solutions from low to high degrees of fidelity.
- Evaluate prototype solutions, selecting the most appropriate methodology.
- Select, formulate and apply a range of user testing methods to ensure any service changes create the desired impact.
- Apply user-centred design processes to iteratively develop concepts and solutions.
- Evaluate solutions in place to continually improve the service for users and stakeholders.
- Critically analyse, interpret and evaluate complex information and concepts.
- Communicate complex information, concepts and ideas adapting for different audiences.
- Influence, negotiate and challenge stakeholders in the delivery and decision-making process.
- Considers multiple viewpoints including those of the internal stakeholders, service users and service providers.
- Work with multidisciplinary teams.
- Work ethically and sustainably, to ensure research and design activities are carried out to the highest practice in ethical standards.
- Manage project to timescales and budget requirements.
- Identify and apply emerging industry developments to continuously improve service design practice.
- Provide support, specialist advice, and guidance.
- Identify the training requirements for their teams and stakeholders.
- Champion and advocate the benefits of service design and user centred solutions.
- Interpret, analyse, and challenge a design brief.
- Systematically analyse and apply problem-solving techniques to complex service design challenges.
- Use service design methods to design new propositions, products, and services, and improve existing ones.
- Co-design, workshop, and facilitation of service design activities with stakeholders and users.
- Map the current and future states of a service journey collating information from multiple sources to form a single view of the service.
- Select, formulate and apply qualitative and quantitative user research methods and approaches.
- Analyse and evaluate findings from qualitative and quantitative research methods to understand and prioritise user needs.
- Evaluate arguments, assumptions, abstract concepts, and data to make judgements, and develop questions to achieve a solution to a problem.
- Select and use ideation methods to generate multiple solutions to complex problems.
- Prioritise potential solutions to select which to take forward to further development.
- Prototype concepts and solutions from low to high degrees of fidelity.
- Evaluate prototype solutions, selecting the most appropriate methodology.
- Select, formulate and apply a range of user testing methods to ensure any service changes create the desired impact.
- Apply user-centred design processes to iteratively develop concepts and solutions.
- Evaluate solutions in place to continually improve the service for users and stakeholders.
- Critically analyse, interpret and evaluate complex information and concepts.
- Communicate complex information, concepts and ideas adapting for different audiences.
- Influence, negotiate and challenge stakeholders in the delivery and decision-making process.
- Considers multiple viewpoints including those of the internal stakeholders, service users and service providers.
- Work with multidisciplinary teams.
- Work ethically and sustainably, to ensure research and design activities are carried out to the highest practice in ethical standards.
- Manage project to timescales and budget requirements.
- Identify and apply emerging industry developments to continuously improve service design practice.
- Provide support, specialist advice, and guidance.
- Identify the training requirements for their teams and stakeholders.
Training schedule
Requirements
Essential qualifications
GCSE in:
- English (grade 9-A/4-C)
- Maths (grade A-C/4-9)
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
- Problem solving skills
- Team working
- Creative
About this employer
At Essex County Council, we look after a large, diverse, complex region of the country. But our approach to creating a place where individuals, families and communities can thrive and prosper is simple.
Company benefits
With flexible working options and a focus on innovation, whether you are looking to develop your career or contribute to the local community, Essex is the ideal place for you.
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
Your earnings can increase over time with an apprenticeship. Find out about potential future pay (opens in new tab).
This is a great opportunity to build practical skills, gain a recognised qualification, and start a career designing services that make a real difference to people’s lives.
Ask a question
The contact for this apprenticeship is:
JGA LIMITED
resourcing.team@essex.gov.uk
The reference code for this apprenticeship is VAC2000039245.
Apply now
Closes in 10 days (Sunday 5 July 2026 at 11:59pm)