Working at Dorset Council is an ideal place for two new digital apprentices, Joanna Holmes and Jade House, who joined Dorset Council in the autumn.
Joanna has been really impressed with how friendly and helpful people have been in the Digital Team: “There’s no such thing as a stupid question and they encourage us to ask questions and learn.
“When we arrived, to help us settle in we had weekly apprentice catch-ups with our Senior Content Designers (Susie and Natalie), which was really helpful.”
And Jade, who has ADHD and Asperger’s, feels they have made reasonable adjustments to help her settle into the team well. Jade said: “If they send a message, they’ll put a smiley face, to show the tone.”
Joanna studied Business Administration at college and had different jobs including hospitality. She then took a short course in creative computing at Bath Spa University, where she learnt coding and design principles, which she really enjoyed.
“I wanted to find a job in digital, when I saw the job advert and thought it was a great opportunity. I was lucky enough to get a 12-month apprenticeship and 18-month contract that started in October.”
Joanna and Jade work in the content design area of the digital team. Working on the website customer platform Placecube fixing broken links, editing web pages, ensuring content is accessible and posting third party job adverts on the council’s job website.
Shadowing is an important element of the hands-on apprenticeship, and Joanna also spends time with the Service Designers attending workshops, whiteboard sessions and learning about service design principles.
After leaving school, Jade (below) took a Higher National Certificate (HNC) in Computing at college and she loves the content design work, ensuring that everything is in plain English and accessible to those with disabilities: “My Mum struggles with reading, so accessibility is really close to my heart.”
Jade and Joanna are keen to continue working at the council after initial contract. Jade said, “It’s a great place to work and I’d love to see myself still working here for the next 5 or so years.”
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