Early careers, apprenticeships and work experience

We work hard to share our vast collection of books, newspapers, music, sound recordings, web pages and digital content with everyone, both in the UK and around the globe.

Whether you’re just leaving school or changing career, this is great start for you. You’ll be paid a competitive salary and get time to complete a recognised qualification. Your manager can help you to decide what working patterns are best for you and you’ll receive a range of benefits to support you along the way.

You’ll also have the chance to learn from our experienced staff and work with other apprentices in different areas.

We strive to employ passionate, diverse and forward-thinking people to undertake a variety of roles. An apprenticeship is an opportunity to learn, and we recognise that it may be a completely new working environment for you.

You can apply for an apprenticeship if you're aged 16 or older, not in full-time education and live in England. To make sure that this is a worthwhile learning opportunity for you, you cannot have a qualification at the same level or higher in the same subject as the apprenticeship.

We don’t expect you to have previous work experience in the sector or any formal qualifications. You just need to be eager to learn and happy to adapt to new challenges.

We pride ourselves on being a diverse, inclusive and welcoming organisation and we aim to create a workforce that reflects our local communities. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds.

We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian, Mixed and other ethnically diverse and disabled candidates as these groups are currently under-represented in our workforce and in the Library sector.

As part of our Disability Confident Committed status, we guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum/essential criteria for the role.

We have four types of apprenticeship:

1. Customer Service Practitioner, level 2 - 15 months
   Learn about your customers, your organisation and how you impact their experience.
2. Business Administrator, level 3 - 18 months
   Learn about business processes and the factors that impact the business and how you can best support the organisation.
3. Library, Information and Archive Services Assistant, level 3 - 21 months
   Learn about our collection - how we keep it safe for future generations through conservation and how we curate it with our users at the heart of everything we do. In this role, you’ll be able to rotate between three teams to gain experience in all areas of the Library.
4. Assistant Accountant, level 3 - 18 months
   Learn about financial accounting, reporting and management and work towards a Level 3 AAT qualification.

All the training follows an apprenticeship standard which can be found on the Institute of Apprenticeships website.