What will I be involved with as a Trainee or Apprentice?
- Apprentices
Council's Apprentice Gardeners assist in the establishment and maintenance of Council's gardens, parks and reserves. Apprentice Greenkeepers assist with the establishment and maintenance of playing fields.
Apprentice Heavy Vehicle Motor Mechanics and Auto Electricians assist in the maintenance and repair of Council's heavy vehicle fleet (including various types of trucks and plant equipment).
Apprentice Carpenters, Plumbers, Electricians and Painters assist in the maintenance of Council owned buildings, including Childcare Centres, Community Centres and the Civic Centre in Blacktown.
For more information about these apprenticeships, please contact Human Resources on 9839 6479.
- Trainees
Council's trainees have the opportunity to develop their communication, teamwork, customer service skills and administration skills in their chosen work area. Whether that is Children's Services, Human Resources, Finance or otherwise, you will be mentored by professional staff in a supportive working environment. You will be able to develop skills that directly relate with your TAFE studies. At the end of the twelve-month program, you will hold desirable skills, abilities and knowledge that employers look for.
For more detail about what is involved in each traineeship click on one of the links below:
Arts Centre
As a trainee in the Arts Centre, you will be based in Blacktown City Council's newly renovated Arts Centre. Your duties will include but are not limited to greeting customers of the Arts Centre, invoicing, preparing for meetings, liaising with the volunteers, front desk duties, organising catering/orders for events and mailing/filing. If you are interested in working in a great, supportive team that encourages you to undertake challenging projects to assist your learning then this traineeship is for you. Additionally, an interest in the visual and performing arts, event/function management and/or customer service would be desirable.
"I work with a great team of people who are always willing to help when it's needed and let me try new and challenging things in order to get the most out of my traineeship. There have been many training opportunities for me and I have had full support to accept each one of them. There are also many events such as exhibition openings and musical performances which I have had the pleasure of being a part of." 2007 Arts Centre trainee
Human Resources
As a trainee in the Human Resources Section, you will be based in Council's Civic Centre. You will play a hands on role in the delivery of Council's human resource function, including responding to the enquiries of staff and potential applicants for Council positions, assist in processing work experience applications, arranging pre-employment medicals, arranging training locale and equipment, setting up training rooms, sending out training notices to staff via email as well as assisting other employees in the section with general administration duties including mailing, filing and data entry. If you want to work in a fun but challenging environment and you have an interest in the field of business administration or human resource management then this traineeship is for you.
"Being able to complete a TAFE Course & working full time in Human Resources has enabled me to kick-start my career. It is an enjoyable & vibrant section & I have enjoyed my time working here. There are many interesting projects to get involved with, like our stall in the Nepean Careers Fair which I helped to run." 2007 HR Trainee
Children's Services
Operating from the Civic Centre, the Children's Services trainee is responsible for general administration tasks, which help to ensure that Blacktown City Council's childcare centres run efficiency. On a daily basis, you will assist other members of the team with invoices, petty cash, filing, fee refunds and placing orders for the centres such as play equipment and groceries.
You may also have the opportunity to assist at one of Blacktown City Council's childcare centres on a temporary basis, where you will be contributing to the administration of the centre including processing fees, terminations, mailing/filing etc. If you have an interest in business administration and/or childcare and would love to work within a supportive and professional team then this traineeship would suit you.
"Working for the Council has been a great experience, it has given me a lot of office experience and skills and the people I have spent the last year working with are a awesome, fun and caring bunch of people to work with. I have made friends for life here." 2007 Children's Services Trainee
Engineering /Maintenance
As a trainee in the Maintenance Services Section your duties will consist of typing and mailing letters, answering and attending to customer enquiries, interacting with various departments throughout Council, following up of unpaid fees, data entry, maintenance of spreadsheets. You will be based in Council's Civic centre where you will have the opportunity to work with a great team whilst developing your administration and clerical skills, PC skills, communication and teamwork skills.
"The areas that I particularly enjoy are working with a large group of people, learning about different aspects of Council including engineering and gaining a sense of responsibility for the tasks I am involved in." 2007 Maintenance Trainee
Customer Service
As a trainee in the Blacktown City Information Centre (BCIC), you will be involved in Customer Service in a Call Centre environment as well as face-to-face customer service at the Information Counter. You will be greeting customers and answering their enquiries. You will learn customer service skills, how to deal with difficult situations, communication problem solving and teamwork skills.
At the completion of the traineeship, Customer Service Trainees have a broad understanding of many operational and procedural aspects of Council as well as experience in handling customer enquiries in the largest Council in NSW. This provides an advantage when applying for other positions both within Council and outside at the completion of the traineeship.
If you would like to work in a challenging, supportive and fast-paced environment, however, varied and interesting at the same time, then the customer service traineeship is for you.
Finance
As a trainee within the Finance Section of Council, you may work between both the Accounts and Rates departments. Your duties may include telephone rates inquiries, monitoring of rate accounts and other general admin duties. In additional, you will work closely with the Voucher Clerk who monitors the outgoing payments of Council, you may process invoices for payment, liaise with creditors in regards to overdue payments, missing or incorrect invoices as well as assist other staff members when required.
"The [other] staff members within both sections are a great bunch of people to work with, supportive and understanding, always willing to guide you in whatever task you are set to complete. The perfect trainee for this section would have to love numbers and be able to work in a structured environment as well as work well under instruction and on their own." 2007 Finance Trainee
As the trainee in records services, you will be based in Council's Civic Centre. Day to day duties will include processing incoming and outgoing correspondence including emails and facsimiles, responding to telephone and over the counter enquiries, distribution of files throughout the Civic Centre as well as participating in bar code file audits and other duties as required.
The records section plays an important role in maintaining an effective and efficient records management system. Record keeping is important because a record can tell us what, where and when something was done or why a decision was made. They also tell us who was involved and under what authority.
The Records Section is a fast paced, highly productive area with a friendly team of 17 staff.