Policy Officer Apprenticeship Level 4

Duration: 18 months

Policy Officers shape and/or influence government policy. They work with a wide range of stakeholders and experts to gather evidence and to synthesise information and present recommendations to senior colleagues.

We are tremendously proud of this programme which was designed by policy officers with central and local government as well as third sector experience. Expert guest speakers have covered reputation management (case study from history), careers in policy, feedback & analysis, a tour of UK Parliament, stakeholder consultation, assessment and networking. The programme was updated in August 2022, to reflect a revision of the apprenticeship standard.

In October 2019 Ofsted wrote about JGA’s programmes “Apprentices…particularly appreciate being taught by experts who help to bring their subjects to life and make them relevant to their own workplace.”

Clients from around England trust JGA with their policy apprenticeships. These include the House of Commons, Defra, Cabinet Office, Department for Education, HMT, Department of Health & Social Care as well as local government in Manchester, Bristol, Midlands, London and other areas. With recent changes to apprenticeship we hope that colleagues from the voluntary sector will join us.

We welcome new starts and up-skills, graduates and non-graduates, individual apprentices or cohorts. We ask only that they have enthusiasm and a lot to learn!

The Course

The Policy Officer apprenticeship is intended to build the knowledge, skills and behaviours required in Policy Officer roles, whether those be within the public, private or not-for-profit sectors.

The duration is 18 months in total, with 12 – 15 months on programme, and up to 3 months for end point assessment.

Our programme consists of 10 taught seminars (delivered as one or two half days sessions per module) with associated assignments and reading, plus 2 End Point Assessment (EPA) preparation sessions (half-day sessions) and 1 line manager briefing session.

All seminars involve a variety of taught material, groupwork, discussions, and set assignments which cover the knowledge criteria of the Standard, as well as some selected skills criteria.

Module details:

Module 1: Induction and Introduction to Policy
Line manager briefing session
Module 2: Project and Programme Management
Module 3: Research and evaluation
Module 4: Stakeholders and Consultation
Module 5: Analysis and Feedback
End Point Assessment preparation 1
Module 6: Parliament
Module 7: Influencing Policy
Module 8: Devolution
Module 9: Implementing Policy
Module 10: Ethical and effective policy
End Point Assessment preparation 2

These sessions will be tailored accordingly to the specific needs of the apprenticeship cohort, so may vary in the content emphasised depending on support required and progress made.

In addition to the seminars, apprentices receive 1-2-1 coaching by policy professionals, as well as high quality onlíne and offline resources.

View course contents

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