Meet the Team

Jo Fellows - HR Manager  

Jo is the HR Manager responsible for Devon County Council’s learning and development and apprenticeship arrangements. Read on to find out more about Jo: 

 

Hello everyone, I’m incredibly proud to lead our award-winning apprenticeship arrangements within the Council and work with a fabulous team!  

I’ve worked in HR in local government for all of my professional career so far. Having completed my A Levels and following a month at University (I hated it – wanted to get into the ‘real’ world and earn some money!) I got a temp job with Devon County Council and ended up very quickly doing HR admin, which I enjoyed. From there I was able to progress into a permanent role and over time completed my professional HR qualifications (CIPD - Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) and was promoted to more senior roles, with me now being a Fellow of CIPD. These days this would have been a HR apprenticeship route and I think this is partly why I am so passionate about how apprenticeships can support recruitment, retention and development. 

Since then, I have worked in a variety of roles within local government – in Devon and other parts of the country, including working as a National HR Advisor for Local Government. I really enjoy HR as no day is ever the same and working in local government HR is so interesting, because of the range of occupational areas we cover and because we also have to consider how the council’s employment practices support wider strategic objectives such as public health and economic prosperity and growth.  

When I was asked to lead our apprenticeship arrangements and prepare for the Government’s 2017 changes, I really didn’t know anything about how they worked! However, with lots of support from my colleagues and external stakeholders I was soon up to speed with the technicalities and could see the amazing benefits that the Council could gain from expanding what was already a very successful offer. Since 2017 our apprentice starts have grown enormously and we have a great reputation both internally and externally.  

It’s also really important to me that we ensure that our apprenticeships are widely accessible to people from all sorts of circumstances and backgrounds. At the moment we are focused on how we support care experienced young people, through our Step Forward programme, and we also have a small but successful Supported Internship and Apprenticeship programme for young people with learning disabilities. There’s lots more we want to do, and the work so far is giving us so much learning, which we’ll be building on in future years.  

Our apprenticeship work plus my own career’s advice experience from school (pretty non-existent!) and experience with University and starting work has also led me to get involved in the Enterprise Advisor Network, a voluntary role where I work with a local secondary school to help them develop and implement their careers programme for students. Apprenticeships are own of the key options that we aim to promote and some of our DCC apprentices have been great in helping to sell the benefits within schools. 

Having a leadership role is a challenge, but also a great opportunity to influence our direction of travel and support and develop my colleagues. To support my own development (and practice what I preach!) I am starting the Level 7 Senior Leader apprenticeship in September 2020, with Exeter University. I am very excited about becoming an apprentice and the learning and development opportunities that this will bring. Being a Mum to two teenage sons, it will be nice for us all to be studying at the same time and maybe they will be able to give me some tips for writing assignments!  

Whatever your age, circumstances or background, I would strongly suggest you consider apprenticeships – they are a great way to learn as part of starting out in your career or at a later stage and there really are so many great qualifications and apprenticeship employers available. 

 

If you are interested in finding out more about apprenticeships at Devon County Council visit devon.cc/apprenticeship and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.  

Jo Fellows 

HR Manager  

Twitter | Facebook | Website | Instagram