Business Optimisation Apprentice

TAUNTON TOWN COUNCIL

TAUNTON (TA1 1HE)

Closes in 17 days (Sunday 5 July 2026 at 11:59pm)

Posted on 18 June 2026

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Summary

Join Taunton Town Council and help make services better for the community. You’ll work with the Business Optimisation Lead to learn how to improve processes, support new ideas, and use technology to make everyday tasks easier and more efficient. A great opportunity to gain practical skills and make a real difference.

Wage

£15,392 for your first year, then could increase depending on your age

National Minimum Wage rate for apprentices

Minimum wage rates (opens in new tab)

Apprentices will need to be paid National Minimum Wage after their first year of their Apprenticeship.

Training course
Improvement technician (level 3)
Hours
Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, with 1 day per week day release for college.

37 hours a week

Start date

Monday 21 September 2026

Duration

1 year 2 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 Business Improvement Apprentice, you’ll be part of a team that helps make Council services smarter, faster, and more effective. Each day varies and you’ll be getting stuck into real projects from day one.

You’ll:

  • Help review how services work and come up with new ideas to improve them
  • Spot opportunities to make things simpler, faster, and better for residents
  • Collect and work with data to support decisions (don’t worry, we’ll teach you how!)
  • Get involved in projects that improve services across the Council
  • Explore how technology can make every day work easier and more efficient
  • Help track how well services are performing and where they can improve
  • Create reports and updates that help teams stay on track
  • Support meetings, take notes, and follow up on actions
  • Keep records organised and up to date
  • Work with friendly teams across the Council to make a real difference

 

What you’ll gain:

  • Real work experience while earning a salary
  • A recognised qualification as part of your apprenticeship
  • Support, training, and mentoring to help you grow
  • Skills in problem-solving, data, teamwork, and communication
  • A chance to shape services that impact your local community

Where you'll work

THE DEANE HOUSE
BELVEDERE ROAD
TAUNTON
TA1 1HE

Training

Apprenticeships include time away from working for specialist training. You’ll study to gain professional knowledge and skills.

Training provider

UNIVERSITY CENTRE SOMERSET COLLEGE GROUP

Training course

Improvement technician (level 3)

Understanding apprenticeship levels (opens in new tab)

What you'll learn

Course contents
  • Compliance: Work in accordance with organisational controls and statutory regulations
  • Communication: Share improvement progress through appropriate reporting
  • Project management: Plan, manage and implement improvement activities. Identify and support management of risks. Develop the business case for improvement activity and implementation
  • Change management: Engage through communications. Reinforce – positively and negatively. Effectively coach peers
  • Principles and methods: Use a structured method and appropriate improvement tools engaging with subject matter experts to deliver business benefits
  • Project selection and Scoping: Identify and scope improvement projects and establish clear measurable objectives
  • Problem definition: Develop a problem/opportunity statement supported by validated data
  • Voice of the customer: Apply techniques to identify customers, their requirements and translate these to metrics
  • Process mapping & analysis: Apply process mapping tools to visualise processes, analyse process performance establishing key insights for performance improvement
  • Lean tools: Apply techniques such as identification and removal of 8 wastes, 5S (Sort, Shine, Set, Standardise, Sustain), standard work, kaizen, visual displays and controls, error proofing, preventative maintenance
  • Data acquisition for analysis: Develop data collection plan and validated measurement processes to understand performance
  • Basic statistics & measures: Establish patterns and trends in data over time using tally, pie, run/trend and pareto charts
  • Data analysis-statistical methods: Identify common and special cause variation
  • Process capability & performance: Analyse product/process performance using good quality data
  • Root cause analysis: Use cause and effect diagrams, technique of 5 whys and graphical analysis to understand and verify root causes
  • Identification & prioritisation: Identify and prioritise improvement solutions
  • Benchmarking: Recognise the value of sharing best practice
  • Sustainability & control: Create control and reaction plans with detection measures, identify opportunities to embed changes to leverage benefit to the business.

Training schedule

This training schedule has not been finalised. Check with this employer if you’ll need to travel to a college or training location for this apprenticeship.

Requirements

Essential qualifications

GCSE in:

  • English (grade 4/C or above)
  • Maths (grade 4/C 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
  • Problem solving skills
  • Presentation skills
  • Analytical skills
  • Logical
  • Team working
  • Initiative

About this employer

Taunton Town Council is the parish council for Taunton. We look after local services such as open spaces, parks, public toilets, events and small grants, and we work with partners to improve the town. We are based at Deane House, Belvedere Road, Taunton and at our depot at Cornishway North, Taunton.

https://www.taunton-tc.gov.uk (opens in new tab)

Company benefits

Employee Benefits Platform; Employee Assistance Programme; L&D incl. teambuilding; Local Government Pension Scheme; Recognition Scheme; 25–30 days holiday (service-based); car park access; volunteering leave; sick pay.

Disability Confident

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).

Career progression opportunities may be available, subject to the apprentice applying for and being successful in the organisation’s recruitment process for relevant vacancies.

Ask a question

The contact for this apprenticeship is:

UNIVERSITY CENTRE SOMERSET COLLEGE GROUP

Shoaib

business@ucscollegegroup.ac.uk

The reference code for this apprenticeship is VAC2000037800.

Apply now

Closes in 17 days (Sunday 5 July 2026 at 11:59pm)