Case studies: Community trading standards officer: Danielle

Danielle graduated with a BA in Law and Accountancy from the University of Portsmouth before starting work as a community trading standards officer at Portsmouth City Council.

When choosing a course at university, I was eager to pursue law and also liked the University of Portsmouth. As Portsmouth did not offer a 'pure' law course at the time (although they do now), I chose to study law with accountancy, as the idea of combining another subject with law also appealed.

I started volunteering with my local Trading Standards department through their scheme 'The Edge' during my second year at university. The scheme exists to educate volunteers in basic trading standards law to enable them to give advice to friends, family, colleagues and the public. In my final year, I used my participation in The Edge scheme to contribute to my degree; I chose a 20 credit unit that meant I had to do a minimum of 120 hours' voluntary work carrying out various tasks within the trading standards service, including writing witness statements and attending training on the applications of the Enterprise Act. It was through this experience that I became interested in a career in trading standards and particularly interested in the work of the community trading standards team.

After my degree, I applied for a role with trading standards at Portsmouth City Council by sending in an application form. I was asked back for an interview which involved giving a five-minute presentation on 'the steps to successful community engagement' to three staff members, including my now line-manager. Thankfully, I was offered the role.

Perhaps most people think trading standards employees spend most of their time in an office, but this is not the case. The best part of my job is the variety. I work with a great team and we are involved in lots of different events, including giving presentations in schools and community groups, and holding events at locations across Portsmouth where we give out information to members of the public, and we even have a radio slot, which we use to educate the public about recent 'scams' they should be aware of. We also have close contact with our volunteers, which is a really enjoyable aspect. Many of our events are attended by our volunteers and others have been inspired by them.

I find that the knowledge I gained during my degree can be practically applied in my new role with trading standards. During my degree course, I wrote a short essay on mobile phones and the problems that can occur with mobile phone contracts. This has become increasingly relevant, as many people approach the department with questions about their mobile phones and other similar topics.

The negative aspects of my work are few and far between. I enjoy my job and the flexibility of my hours, even though this sometimes means that I’m working in the evening or at the weekend.

As I’m quite new to my role, I’m still finding out what options there are for me and how I can develop further, but I’m working on some of my own projects at the moment and in the future I hope that these will become increasingly successful.