Waltham Forest is a vibrant, open borough rich in culture and diversity, our residents and businesses recognise Waltham Forest as the best place to live and work in London. 

We are a pioneering borough supported by a dynamic workforce. Recent accolades include being London’s first Borough of Culture in 2019, Council of the Year 2019 and Public Finance’s Finance Team of the Year 2020. But we don’t stop there, we have an extensive regeneration programme across the borough; our capital programme is over £500m. We are renewing the Town Hall campus neighbourhood, investing in affordable homes, and developing our ambitious 15-minute city plans. All this ambition needs to be underpinned by a strong, agile finance team and Waltham Forest will be a great place to develop your skills and improve the lives of so many. 

We have designed our Graduate Trainee Programme to ensure that we can develop the leaders of tomorrow.  In your four years with us, you will gain invaluable finance and wider leadership experience, through a programme of rotational work placements, of varying lengths each. The placements cover the eight Statement of Expertise areas in the CIPFA Portfolio: 

• Financial and performance reporting, including producing our annual accounts, statutory returns to central government and VAT; 
• Strategic and operational financial management, including budget setting and monitoring 
• Audit and accountability, including placements with Internal Audit and working closely with external audit 
• Partnership and stakeholder relations, including exposure to commercial accounts with our trading companies, and placements across the wider Finance and Governance directorate 
• Change, risk and project management, including involvement in exciting transformational projects 
• Procurement and contract management 
• Governance, ethics and values 
• Leadership and strategic management, including supervising staff, typically in year  

The scheme offers a strong grounding in financial and management accounting, and first-hand knowledge of our core activities. With its variety and progression, by the end of the scheme, you’ll understand your strengths and interests, and in which direction you want your career to develop. 

We are looking for talented, enthusiastic individuals to join our team and help drive forward improvements; people who will take ownership of their professional development and go the extra mile to succeed in their studies and realise their full potential.