University: Bangor
Current role: Voluntary & Community Sector (VCS) Project Coordinator

David's story

Once I had completed my degree I moved to Shropshire where I briefly worked as a residential support worker working with young people with behaviour problems. I gained some valuable experience whilst working with the children and care professionals. Though I enjoyed this role, I decided I wanted to test myself further and I was fortunate enough to get a job working for Shropshire Council in their Passenger Transport Team.

Whilst working in the Passenger Transport department, the Graduate Programme was advertised. I had witnessed the great exposure and challenging projects the previous graduate cohort had been given and I wanted to be a part of the exciting programme.

From the perspective of an internal candidate, it was a challenging, yet high rewarding transition over to the Graduate Programme and there are a plethora of advantages to becoming a graduate at Shropshire Council, with the level of exposure to the Senior Manager Team, the challenging work programmes and the ability to make a difference to the community to name a few.

I am currently working in the Voluntary & Community Sector Assembly (VCSA) on various projects aimed at voluntary organisations. Following central government’s recent Localism Act, the landscape of how the public sector commissions services is changing. It is my role to help provide infrastructure support for voluntary organisations to enable them to provide contracted services for local authorities.

In addition to this, there is now an increasing opportunity to develop alternative ways of providing services, including the development of staff mutual and social enterprises. My role has been to develop a pathway and support network for those looking to embrace alternative ways of working.

As part of the Graduate Programme, all graduates are required to complete a group project. The project that I was involved in requires us to work with Looked After Children and to design better, more flexible means of communication between them and the local authority. The project gave us an insight to an area of the organisation we had relatively little experience or knowledge about and this was an invaluable experience from both a professional and personal perspective.

I am also working on a charity project called the Princes Trust ‘Million Makers’ Scheme. Becoming a Shropshire Graduate has given me a platform to showcase my talents and this charity project is another example of this.

You should apply if…. you want to raise your professional and personal profile and challenge yourself every day. You need to be innovative and adaptive to change and willing to try something new and exciting!

Back to top