National Graduate Development Programme (local government)

The National Graduate Development Programme (NGDP) is the Local Government Association’s management trainee scheme for councils in England and Wales. Graduates are recruited centrally, matched with a host council and employed by that council for a two-year programme of placements across different services, with a leadership and management qualification alongside. At the end you apply for a permanent post, usually with the same council.

Who runs it and who employs you

The LGA runs the recruitment, the national training and the graduate network. Your employer is the host council, which sets your contract, your pay and your place of work. That split matters in practice. Questions about the programme content, learning sets and the qualification go to the NGDP team. Questions about pay, leave, sickness and probation go to the council’s HR, under the council’s own policies.

Most host councils employ NGDP graduates on National Joint Council (NJC) terms, the “Green Book”, with pay set at a point on the council’s grading structure. The starting salary is published in each year’s recruitment information and differs a little between councils, especially in London where local pay is often higher. The NJC pay spine guide shows how council grades map to the national spine.

How the two years are structured

The programme is built around placements, typically three or four, each lasting several months. A common pattern is one placement in a frontline or service delivery area (housing, waste, leisure, customer services), one in a strategic or corporate area (policy, performance, finance, transformation) and one in a partnership or project role. Councils design their own rotations, so the mix varies.

Placements are real jobs with real deadlines. You might draft a report for a committee, manage a small consultation, help redesign a service or analyse data for a budget decision. You usually have a mentor or programme lead inside the council and a line manager in each placement.

The learning side runs in parallel. Graduates complete a leadership and management qualification and join national events and action learning sets with graduates from other councils. Time for study is part of the working week, and the qualification is paid for through the programme.

Pay, pension and leave

Because you are a council employee, you get council terms from day one. Under the Green Book the minimum annual leave is 23 days basic for staff with under five years’ continuous service, plus 8 public holidays and 2 extra-statutory days, a minimum total of 33 days. Many councils give more.

You are enrolled in the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS). Your contribution rate depends on your pay: from April 2026, pay of £29,001 to £47,300 attracts 6.5 per cent in the main section, and pay of £18,401 to £29,000 attracts 5.8 per cent. The council pays a larger employer contribution on top. The LGPS guide covers how the scheme builds up.

Sick pay follows the Green Book scale, which rises with length of service: one month on full pay and (after four months’ service) two months on half pay in the first year. The take-home pay calculator shows what a given NGDP salary works out at after tax, National Insurance, student loan and pension.

Who can apply

The NGDP is aimed at graduates and people finishing a degree. Eligibility rules on degree subject and classification are set for each intake and have been relaxed in some years, so read the current criteria before deciding you are not eligible. You need the right to work in the UK for the length of the programme. There is no upper age limit and career changers are welcome.

Councils value people who can explain why local government in particular interests them. Being able to talk about a local service you have used, a council decision you followed or a volunteering role in your community carries more weight than general enthusiasm for “public service”.

The selection process

Recruitment usually opens in the autumn for an intake starting the following September. The stages are broadly:

1. An online application with eligibility questions.
2. Online tests, normally situational judgement and reasoning.
3. A video interview or written exercise.
4. An assessment centre with group, written and interview exercises.
5. Matching with a host council, followed by an interview or conversation with that council.

Passing the assessment centre does not guarantee a place. The number of graduates taken depends on how many councils sign up as hosts that year, and successful candidates who are not matched are sometimes held on a reserve list. The guides on assessment centres and situational judgement tests cover what those stages involve.

What happens after the programme

Nothing guarantees a permanent job at the end, but councils host graduates because they want to keep them. Many NGDP graduates move into policy, project, performance or service management roles at their host council, and some move to another council or to central government. Council jobs are advertised on each council’s own website and on regional portals; where councils advertise jobs lists the main ones.

If you are comparing the NGDP with the Fast Stream or the NHS scheme, the graduate schemes comparison sets them out side by side. If you are not a graduate or missed the deadline, how to get a council job covers the ordinary route in.