Procurement Apprentice
Citizen Housing Group Limited
West Midlands (B37 7YN)
Closes in 11 days (Monday 26 October 2026)
Posted on 15 October 2026
Contents
Summary
As Citizens Procurement Apprentice, you'll be key in sourcing and acquiring goods, works and services, ensuring excellent services for our customers. You'll develop essential life and soft skills, gain procurement knowledge, and have the opportunity to pursue a CIPS Level 3 Apprenticeship.
- Wage
-
£23,080 a year
- Training course
- Procurement and supply assistant (level 3)
- Hours
-
Monday to Friday, 9.00am to 5.00pm.
Flexibility: Hybrid Working (minimum of 2-days per week in office).
37 hours a week
- Start date
-
Monday 23 November 2026
- Duration
-
1 year 5 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
- Work with colleagues across Citizen to understand what they need and help turn those needs into clear procurement plans.
- Help lead and coordinate procurement projects for high-value contracts covering works, goods and services.
- Build productive relationships with departments, customers and suppliers, keeping people informed and helping projects move forward.
- Use research and information about costs, spending, markets and supply chains to help colleagues make sound decisions.
- Ask questions, share advice and influence decisions so that contracts deliver quality, value and safer outcomes for customers.
- Check new suppliers carefully, complete supplier set-up and help identify and raise risks before contracts begin.
- Help run fair, effective tenders that meet UK procurement rules and Citizen’s policies.
- Track the social value promised through contracts and contribute clear information for Citizen’s environmental, social and governance reporting.
- Keep the e-Procurement Portal, Contract Register, Sourcing Plan, Benefits Register and procurement guidance accurate and up to date.
- Share practical guidance and training with colleagues, customers and suppliers, and bring useful ideas from inside and outside Citizen back to the team.
Where you'll work
Unit 4040
Lakeside
Birmingham
West Midlands
B37 7YN
Training
Apprenticeships include time away from working for specialist training. You’ll study to gain professional knowledge and skills.
Training provider
THE APPRENTICE ACADEMY LIMITED
Training course
Procurement and supply assistant (level 3)
Understanding apprenticeship levels (opens in new tab)
What you'll learn
Course contents
- Monitor and order products, stock, equipment and services at appropriate times using the appropriate procurement method.
- Communicate to procurement's internal stakeholders, suppliers and other stakeholders in order to develop effective relationships and networks
- Create, maintain and amend purchase order and contract records.
- Interpret, evaluate and compare procurement information such as historical spend and usage using databases and spreadsheets.
- Present findings and data in all formats e.g. mathematically, written and oral.
- Determine value for money (VFM) and added value through the use of Total Cost of Ownership during the evaluation process, and apply the most economically advantageous tender (MEAT) criteria to the evaluation of quotes and tenders to support the recommendation at award. This may include the inclusion of green, low carbon, sustainability, and ethical criteria.
- Utilise relevant Procurement computer systems or internal databases.
- Select the supplier of the most appropriate products and services for purchases within their remit and place purchase order.
- Undertake appraisal of adhoc and low spend suppliers including setting them up on the purchasing system.
- Effectively research and analyse demand, spend, trends, potential suppliers and industries utilising qualitative and quantitative methods.
- Develop specifications of requirements and requests for quotes/tenders in line with organisational requirements.
- Apply considerations of responsible procurement in evaluating potential suppliers, quotes and tenders.
- Investigate and resolve purchase order, delivery and invoice queries.
- Own low risk value projects such as supply contracts for stationery, personal protective equipment (PPE) or other consumables, and contribute to higher risk activities such as contracts for building services or machinery, and track, log, expedite and review outstanding orders and stock availability where applicable.
- Maintain knowledge on all open orders and their status' and provide assistance to all purchasing staff e.g. expediting and feeding information back to the relevant stakeholders.
- Able to consider the impact of the decision making process when interacting with the supply chain.
- Able to support the contract negotiations and mini competitions with suppliers.
- Monitor and order products, stock, equipment and services at appropriate times using the appropriate procurement method.
- Communicate to procurement's internal stakeholders, suppliers and other stakeholders in order to develop effective relationships and networks
- Create, maintain and amend purchase order and contract records.
- Interpret, evaluate and compare procurement information such as historical spend and usage using databases and spreadsheets.
- Present findings and data in all formats e.g. mathematically, written and oral.
- Determine value for money (VFM) and added value through the use of Total Cost of Ownership during the evaluation process, and apply the most economically advantageous tender (MEAT) criteria to the evaluation of quotes and tenders to support the recommendation at award. This may include the inclusion of green, low carbon, sustainability, and ethical criteria.
- Utilise relevant Procurement computer systems or internal databases.
- Select the supplier of the most appropriate products and services for purchases within their remit and place purchase order.
- Undertake appraisal of adhoc and low spend suppliers including setting them up on the purchasing system.
- Effectively research and analyse demand, spend, trends, potential suppliers and industries utilising qualitative and quantitative methods.
- Develop specifications of requirements and requests for quotes/tenders in line with organisational requirements.
- Apply considerations of responsible procurement in evaluating potential suppliers, quotes and tenders.
- Investigate and resolve purchase order, delivery and invoice queries.
- Own low risk value projects such as supply contracts for stationery, personal protective equipment (PPE) or other consumables, and contribute to higher risk activities such as contracts for building services or machinery, and track, log, expedite and review outstanding orders and stock availability where applicable.
- Maintain knowledge on all open orders and their status' and provide assistance to all purchasing staff e.g. expediting and feeding information back to the relevant stakeholders.
- Able to consider the impact of the decision making process when interacting with the supply chain.
- Able to support the contract negotiations and mini competitions with suppliers.
Training schedule
Citizen Housing Group Limited, Birmingham Business Park. B37 7YN.
Requirements
Essential qualifications
GCSE in:
- English (grade 5 or above)
- Maths (grade 5 or above)
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
- Administrative skills
- Analytical skills
- Team working
- Initiative
Other requirements
N/A
About this employer
Here at Citizen, our purpose is to provide homes that are a foundation for life. With over fifty years of experience, we have grown to be one of the UK’s most trusted social housing providers, Citizen owns and manages 30,000 homes for diverse communities across the West Midlands, from urban tower blocks to rural villages and towns. There are some fundamental challenges people in our communities’ face, and we want to be an organisation which can help them deal with these. So, we are working to solve some of the most pressing issues around housing and homelessness. We adopt a proactive approach to safeguarding to ensure everyone accessing our services can do so without fear of harm, abuse or neglect. As part of our recruitment process, we carry out robust safeguarding checks.
https://www.citizenhousing.org.uk/ (opens in new tab)
Company benefits
- Flexible working
- Generous annual leave entitlement
- Free membership to a health plan with discounts on medical treatment
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).
Procurement and Supply Level 4.
Ask a question
The contact for this apprenticeship is:
THE APPRENTICE ACADEMY LIMITED
The reference code for this apprenticeship is VAC2000059152.
Apply now
Closes in 11 days (Monday 26 October 2026)
After signing in, you’ll apply for this apprenticeship on the company's website.