Policy Apprentice

Location: London

Closing Date

18/12/2026

Group

Broadcasting and Media Group

Management Level

Apprentice

Job Type

Fixed Term (Fixed Term)

Job Description

Please note that this role will close at 00:01 on Friday, 18th December, and therefore we advise getting your application in by no later than midnight on Thursday, 17th December.

About Ofcom

As the UK’s communications regulator, we’re delivering vital work that helps keep the UK connected and shapes the future of how we’ll stay connected with each other.

Our work covers everything from phones and broadband, through to TV, radio, the postal service, and wireless devices. We’re also taking on the challenge of making the online world a safer place. And we need people of all backgrounds, skill sets, and experiences to help us achieve our goal of making communications work for everyone.

About the team you’ll be part of

Ofcom’s Broadcasting and Media Group (BMG) will be your home for your full apprenticeship. We help make sure people across the UK have access to a trusted, diverse and sustainable media sector.

Our work covers TV, radio and video-on-demand services. We set rules for the sector, issue licences to broadcasters, check that the rules are followed, and take action to help protect audiences. With more and more people watching and listening to content online and on platforms like Netflix, YouTube, TikTok and Spotify, we also consider the ways we can update our rules so people can continue to find and access high-quality UK content and news they can trust.

During your apprenticeship, you'll gain experience across all parts of BMG and see how policy expertise, regulatory judgement, strategic thinking, and operational delivery come together. You'll work with colleagues who review evidence, listen to different perspectives, and find practical ways to address issues affecting audiences and the media sector.

This means you’ll have the opportunity to experience the different areas of BMG’s work:

Delivery and Strategy: helps BMG plan and deliver its work. This includes organising and prioritising projects and helping teams work together.

Broadcast Licensing: issues licences to broadcasters so they can go on air. This includes receiving applications for TV and radio licences, deciding who should be issued a licence, and checking that broadcasters are fit and proper to hold one.

Content Standards and Enforcement: helps protect audiences and makes sure broadcasters follow Ofcom's rules. This includes considering complaints and investigating issues including harm and offence, due impartiality, fairness and privacy.

Content Policy Development: helps shape the rules and policies that affect TV, radio and online media. This includes helping to make sure viewers and listeners can find important public service content, that different voices and viewpoints are represented, and that media is accessible to everyone.

For your apprenticeship, you’ll learn how we develop policy from end-to-end. For us, this means identifying and understanding a problem or a need in the sectors we regulate and then deciding what to do about it. To do this well, we need to think creatively and find smart ways to handle big issues. We work in teams of people with different areas of expertise to look at information and evidence, listen to different points of view, and find fair and practical solutions to help make communications work better for everyone in the UK.

The purpose and scope of the role

The two-year apprenticeship will give you the opportunity to learn about policy and how we regulate while contributing to real work across our Group.

You’ll start in our Delivery and Strategy Hub, where you’ll develop core skills and learn how we plan and organise all of our work. As your apprenticeship develops, you’ll build on this experience by also working with the Broadcast Licensing, Content Policy Development, and Content Standards and Enforcement areas of the Group, where you’ll get to experience the different ways we regulate content.

For example, you could be helping to write a report about the performance of public service broadcasters like the BBC and Channel 4, working on initiatives to make the broadcasting industry more representative and inclusive, or considering if our rules need to be updated to protect audiences from harmful content.

Your Key Responsibilities

As a Policy Officer Apprentice, you’ll contribute to a range of projects and other types of work that shape broadcasting and media regulation. You’ll be supported by experienced colleagues and will take on greater responsibility as your apprenticeship develops.

Working with Delivery and Strategy, you will

Support projects and priority work across BMG, helping teams plan, organise and deliver their work.

Help keep work moving by monitoring shared mailboxes and work queues, responding to straightforward queries and directing other queries to the right colleagues.

Organise meetings, take clear notes, keep plans and records up to date, and work with colleagues across BMG to help coordinate their work.

Working with Broadcast Licensing, you will

Help process applications for TV and radio licences, checking that the necessary information has been provided and keeping applicants informed.

Support the team in gathering and reviewing information used to decide whether to issue a licence and whether a broadcaster is fit and proper to hold one.

Keep licensing records and published information accurate and up to date, and help to respond to queries from applicants and licensees.

Working with Content Standards and Enforcement, you will

Help support the assessment of complaints about TV, radio and on-demand content, including requesting recordings, so we can quickly identify the issues that we may need to consider.

Support the investigation process by gathering and organising relevant information and other material from broadcasters.

Help prepare correspondence and other documents,