Library & Digital Apprentice/Advisor

Location Various libraries in Trafford

Salary Range £24,413 - £28,142 (pro-rata)

Salary Grade Band 1 - 3

Trafford Council is a Living Wage Employer - this means that we pay all our staff a minimum of the Real Living Wage rate. For any periods where our lowest hourly rate drops below the Real Living Wage rate applicable at the time, we provide an hourly supplement to increase pay to this level. This applies to staff who are on the lowest pay point of our Band 1 grade.

Working Pattern - Part time

Working hours 18.125 hours per week

Trafford Libraries are open between 10am and 5pm weekdays and 10am and 4pm Saturdays; most libraries also open until 7pm at least once a week. We also deliver additional activities and events throughout the year, outside our core business hours.

Contract type (18-month apprenticeship (pro rata) contract then, following successful completion, a permanent Library and Digital Advisor role).

Closing Date Sunday 14^th December 2025

Interview date - w/c 5th January 2026

Interview Type In person

About the Role

Trafford Council and its partners in the public, private and third sectors are embarking on a Vision which sees us working together to close inequality gaps and maximise Trafford’s huge potential. Our vision is working together to build the best future for all our communities and everyone in Trafford.

Trafford really is a great place to work. With a positive permission culture, we embrace innovation and encourage performance. We’re keen to recruit someone with the right values and behaviours that can help us ensure our workplace values are at the heart of everything we do.

We recognise that having a diverse workforce is essential to bringing fresh ideas and perspectives to our Council, so we particularly welcome applications from minority, marginalized and diverse groups, and we in turn promise a fair and unbiased recruitment process.

A vacancy has become available within our team that we need to recruit for to enable us to continue to build on our successes and we are keen to bring in new skills, abilities, and ideas into the team.

Trafford Libraries is a vibrant and exciting place to work, with a fantastic team in place keenly focused on providing exceptional customer care to our residents and visitors and delivering valued support services to our communities.

This is a great time to join us as we are forward thinking and innovative in our ways of interacting with our customers. If you have what we are looking for then we want to hear from you.

Alongside your advisor role you will work towards completing an apprenticeship in Library, Information and Archive Services Assistant Apprenticeship (LIAS) Level 3.

The Level 3 standard covers a wide range of professional skills, including digital skills and information literacy. It defines the activities of LIAS Level 3 apprentices as:

“LIAS Assistants help users find the information and resources they need in order to resolve their specific query. They work with people from all parts of society and the workforce, providing essential digital and analogue information services issuing and returning materials, organizing collections, answering research and information queries, improving customers’ literacy skills, quite often at the forefront of innovation.”

Following successful completion of your probation and the above named apprenticeship you will move to the band 3 Advisor role.

About you

Your style and approach will reflect our values and behaviours: you will be enthusiastic, motivated and have a strong desire to work with customers. You will also be a team player, able to work under pressure and using your own initiative. You will have excellent interpersonal and communication skills plus a positive attitude. You will need to be numerate, literate, flexible and pro-active

About the Role

As a Library and Digital Apprentice/Advisor, you will be working as part of a busy team delivering services across several Libraries in the borough. The role of the library service is to deliver against our Universal Offers developed for public library services which are:

-Reading
-Information and Digital
-Culture and Creativity
-Health and Wellbeing

These core promises shape the services we offer, and therefore the role of Library and Digital Apprentice/Advisor.

You will promote and encourage the benefits of reading for pleasure and help support people when loaning/returning/renewing items, as well as searching for and reserving stock.

You will play a key role in developing and running a wide range of activities and events across libraries, including children’s activities such as Storytime and Rhymetime, craft activities and themed events during school holidays. You will also support a variety of adults/focused groups such as Art, Crafts and Reading and facilitate special events such as author talks and theatre productions.

You must be digitally aware and able to assist customers with requests for information and signposting services, as well as providing customers ‘hands on’ support to get online.

You will be responsible for promoting and contributing to all our online and social media resources and will play a part in our back-office processes and procedures which are vital for maintaining a successful library service (such as stock management and banking).

You will also help us to support our library volunteers who are part of our team and provide invaluable support to our busy service.

Additional Information

Trafford libraries is structured into two geographical areas. The North Area comprises Limelight (Old Trafford), Partington, Stretford, Town Hall Urmston and Woodsend Libraries whilst the South Area comprises Altrincham, Coppice, Hale, Sale and Timperley Libraries.

Flexibility will be required to work across all open hours which are 10am to 5pm or 7pm Monday to Friday and 10am to 4pm on Saturday. In addition, there will be occasions where work is required outside of these hours to support the delivery of key events and activities, such as the occasional Sunday or later in the evening.

Due to the nature of our fast-paced service, there will be an expectation for staff to work across our sites and be flexible in their shift pattern from time to time.

Contact details

To discuss the role in more detail, please contact James Cooper (Library Coodinator) on 0161 912 3189 or Email james.cooper@trafford.gov.uk, or Gamma Tembo (Library Coordinator) on 0161 912 3189 or gamma.tembo@trafford.gov.uk

About us

You will be welcomed into a friendly environment where your personal and professional development will be encouraged. You will have the opportunity to work and grow in a people-centered and values-based organisation that promotes a positive permission culture. Your opinions matter so you will have the opportunity to shape how we do things here at Trafford.

To learn more about Trafford as a place to work visit and to view more about our awards and benefits please visit: Trafford - Benefits | www.inploi.com (greater.jobs)

OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION

Greater Manchester Continuous Service Commitment - greater.jobs | www.inploi.com

For this opportunity, you must be able to prove you have the right to work in the UK - if in doubt please visit the following link Employers' right to work checklist - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). Please note we are not a licensed sponsor.

Privacy Notice - The Council needs to hold and process information about employees, workers and other individuals as appropriate, for various reasons. With the General Data Protection Regulations coming into force we have in place a new privacy notice for staff, contractors, volunteers, trainees, those on work experience and job applicants. To find out more, please click here: Recruitment & Employment Privacy Notice (trafford.gov.uk)