Every year at Peterborough City Council, we recruit three candidates to join us as part of the Impact: The Local Government Graduate Programme.
This year we’re looking for graduates based in Peterborough who know our community and want to make a difference. It’s a great opportunity to gain on the job experience, a CMI Level 7 qualification in Leadership and Management, and earn money at the same time.
If this sparks your interest, look below to hear from our cohort 25 graduates who completed the programme in September 2025 and are now in permanent roles at Peterborough City Council.
Applications close 6th January 2026. Find out more and apply: Become a Graduate Management Trainee at Peterborough City Council
Cohort 25:
Zarah Ahmed
Hi! My name is Zarah Ahmed. I studied International Law and Global Justice at the University of Sheffield and have always aspired to a career in local government. The NGDP was the perfect scheme for me—it offered flexibility in location and the chance to experience different areas of council work.
During the scheme, I completed placements in the Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Partnership, the Communities Team, Finance and Children’s Services, gaining exposure to a wide range of people, systems, software, and team cultures. This variety gave me a deep understanding of how local government operates and how different services work together to support communities.
In my first placement with DASV, I helped plan training sessions, supported implementation of recommendations from Domestic Homicide Reviews, and produced documents summarising key findings from research projects such as the Violence Against Women and Girls Needs Assessment. I also attended events with partners like Women’s Aid, seeing firsthand the impact of frontline work.
Beyond my placements, I became Chair of the Council’s Anti-Racist Learning Group, a role I continue to hold. This has allowed me to lead important conversations and initiatives around equality and inclusion.
The NGDP scheme has been an incredible experience—providing opportunities to meet senior leaders, share ideas, and develop professionally. I am now continuing my journey in local government as a Planning Policy Officer on a one-year contract, and I look forward to building on everything I’ve learned to make a positive difference.
Umme Pisavadi
Hi, my name is Umme and I graduated in 2022 after studying French and German. I applied for the Impact scheme because I wanted to get some experience in the public sector, and see what local government was all about.
My first placement was in the Planning Policy department, where I helped develop an evidence base and policies for the emerging Local Plan (a Local Plan is a document that sets out a council’s vision and objectives for growth, with policies for how to achieve this, and it usually covers a 20 year period). My role was to look specifically at how Peterborough can work towards becoming a net-zero city, looking into renewable energy, low-carbon technology, and net-zero housing. Working on the Local Plan also gave me the chance to be involved in a range of other tasks: presenting at Working Groups and interacting with Councillors, helping with site assessments, and just generally getting an insight into how strategic planning and policy works.
My second placement was in Children’s Services. I led a transformation project that looked at how the Council could support our Care Leavers with employment, education, and training support. This was a more collaborative role than my first placement, and I had to bring various stakeholders on board to define and deliver the project. I found this an incredibly rewarding placement, as I gained more frontline experience working with vulnerable members of Peterborough’s community and brought people from across the Council on board to affect change.
My final placement was within the Safer Communities team, working specifically on the Council’s city centre project. I got involved with various sub-projects, including Peterborough’s strategy around libraries, events processes within the city, and pulling together an Emergency Planning process (the procedures and policies for how to respond to anything from a Council-wide IT failure, to an extreme weather event that affects the city).
Overall, I’ve had a great experience and have felt valued and supported from the moment I started the scheme. The staff at Peterborough are all very welcoming and keen to get grads involved as much as they can, and there’s been so many opportunities to learn and grow here already.
Zoe Peyton Jones
Hi, I’m Zoe. I studied Politics and Sociology, and knew I wanted to work in a related field, having a direct and tangible impact on communities – so when I came across the Impact graduate programme, it seemed like the perfect fit. I joined Peterborough City Council as a graduate trainee in 2023, completing three placements over the course of my two years on the programme.
My first placement, in Climate Change, focused on the development of the council’s organisational Roadmap to Net Zero, identifying steps to reduce the council’s net emission to zero by 2030. I also worked on calculating the council’s carbon footprint, working with stakeholders across the council to understand and reduce emissions. Through this work, I developed strong strategic and data analysis skills and had the opportunity to write and present scrutiny committee reports, as well as to present to senior officers. These were wonderful opportunities so early on in the programme and helped lay the foundation for my experience throughout the rest of the graduate scheme.
My second placement in Adult Performance and Development focused on support for unpaid carers. In this role, I provided project management support for the implementation of an AI digital support platform, while also helping to coordinate coproduction workshops in support of our carers’ strategy. Working so closely with community members, hearing their stories, and collaborating to develop ideas was hugely rewarding.
My final placement was in Public Health, where I combined learnings from my two prior placements to lead on a multi agency project streamlining support for people living in cold, damp, and mouldy homes. I also supported the implementation of a new public health-oriented advertising policy restricting adverts for unhealthy food, working closely with other teams and developing and delivering training to identify noncompliant ads. Through this work, I built skills in researching evidence-based practice as well as in presenting to a range of senior officers. In addition to these projects, I regularly engaged with shadowing opportunities, ranging from learning about data and mapping, to sitting in on department management team finance meetings, and beyond.
Over the course of my two years on the programme, I was also able to attend the LGC Summit, a conference for senior leaders in local government, as well as regular training sessions with graduates across the country and subject-specific graduate-organised conferences and events.
The Impact programme at Peterborough enabled me to rapidly develop skills and confidence, encouraging me to move beyond my comfort zone while providing consistent support throughout. My journey at Peterborough has now gone full circle, as I have returned to the Climate Change team as an Energy and Environment Officer to take on exciting project management, emission measurement, and carbon reduction responsibilities, and look forward to helping shape carbon mitigation and adaptation in Peterborough.