Graduate Scheme

Our graduate programme is 4 years long for our engineering and science graduates and 2 years for our Commercial graduates.

Over the first 2 years of the programme you will undertake a range of placements of around 3-6 months, across the business. This could mean working in Bristol, Leicester, Warrington, Cumbria and London or on any of our many power stations up and down the country! You will be assigned a home location but expect to move around as this is the only way to gain experience and kick start your career with Cavendish Nuclear. There could also be opportunities to move around the wider Babcock Group. You will gain practical experience alongside some true experts and learning valuable technical skills. The placements that you undertake are designed to help you meet the competencies required by the various professional institutes to ensure you are continuously learning and building your breadth of experience.

You could be involved in anything from design and planning of new plant, through operations and maintenance of power plant, decommissioning, waste management, fuel handling to Nuclear new build. Civil engineering graduates could be designing cutting edge structures that help to push forward the boundaries of the UK’s Nuclear Industry.

As a Physics graduate you could be providing radiological instrumentation, safety hazard analysis or specialist measurements of on-site nuclear material.

Our Procurement and Supply Chain function is accountable for managing and governing external spend within our supply chain. Cavendish Nuclear work with suppliers who share our commitment to health, safety and quality standards and we expect that products and services are delivered in ways that support these high standards and maintain our excellent reputation with our customers. The function takes a strategic approach to delivering the business objectives and deliverables having to constantly adapt to varying customer requirements, responding to changes in the market and satisfying additional influencing factors, requires a flexible and dynamic team. If you enjoy working in an environment that is varied, challenging and integral to business operations, then this Graduate scheme is the perfect opportunity for you.

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As part of the Commercial Graduate programme you will complete a series of nine month placements: Business Winning, Commercial, Commercial Projects and Procurement and Supply Chain, with optional short placements in; Finance, Legal and Trade Controls. This will be complemented by the Graduate Development programme and enrolment with the International Association of Commercial and Contract Management (IACCM). The programme  is designed to give you maximal exposure within the business and develop you into a future leader.

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We recognise that your development is key for you to fulfil your potential in the world of work. That’s why we’ve created a programme that will support your learning to deliver real business value though it’s up to you to make the most of it.

Our graduate programme is accredited by many professional bodies including the IET, ICE, IChemE, IMechE, IMA, IOP, and CIMA. We expect all of our graduates to work towards chartership with their relevant institute and we will be there to support you, assigning you a qualified and experienced mentor to help you realise your career goals and achieve chartership.

Your career with us starts with an induction to welcome you to the business, here you will meet business leaders and fellow graduates and discover what our graduate programme has in store for you!

You will also participate in the Graduate Development Programme during your first 2 years with us. This programme brings together graduates from across different business areas for a series of personal effectiveness modules, delivered by our award-winning training partner; Interaction, Learning and Development.

These sessions will take you away from the business for 3-4 days so that you can really immerse yourself in the modules and focus on your own development without any distractions. These modules will help you transition to the business and will look at building the core skills to become successful. There will also be a chance to get involved in some exciting, outdoor team building activities! All of these residential training modules will be complemented by online learning, a live business project and networking events with senior leaders in our business.

Training and development don’t end once you finish the graduate programme! At Cavendish Nuclear we believe in the ongoing development of our people and we will provide you with the framework you need to further develop yourself and your career.

It is important to us that you feel part of Cavendish Nuclear as soon as you receive that job offer!

Before you even join us you will be assigned a graduate buddy, a mentor and a professional manager who will be in regular contact with you in the lead up to September, they will remain your contact points throughout the graduate programme and beyond. We also realise there’s a lot of planning that needs to happen before you start your graduate role so we will send you monthly video blogs from our graduates with lots of handy tips to help you prepare.

In addition to all this you will also be invited to your home office before you start by our current graduates who will be able to introduce you to your mentor and manager, give you a tour of the building and their insights in to the local area and the graduate programme. This will also be an opportunity to meet any other graduates joining the same office as you and will help you to start feeling that you belong at Cavendish Nuclear!

We offer a competitive salary with structured pay and progression. We also provide support to help you as you move placements and a range of company benefits. At Cavendish Nuclear we want to see you at your best which is why ensuring there is a good work-life balance for all of our employees is important to us. Flexible working arrangements are supported throughout the company.

Running award winning programmes is something that we are very passionate about and this is evidenced by the recognition we have received from many different industry bodies. This includes the IOP for “Best Practice in Professional Development” and being shortlisted for an award by the AGR for our Graduate Development Programme. As well as this our undergraduate programme has been recognised as one of the top medium-sized schemes in the UK!

You will also be joining some of the best graduates in the industry, including the “Graduate Learner of the Year” and one of the finalists for “Female Engineer of the Year” as awarded by the ECITB. Our graduates have also received recognition in the national press for articles they have written! We continuously strive to deliver an excellent programme for our graduates and we provide the right support and encouragement to help you become award winners too!

On our Undergraduate Programme placements you will work on a real project with real responsibilities. During your placement your line manager will formally appraise your performance and provide feedback and coaching to build on your key strengths and development areas. You also will receive a buddy and functional contacts who will be your support throughout the programme.

We offer 12 week summer placements and 12 month industrial placements for penultimate year students in the following disciplines:

• Mechanical engineering
• Electrical engineering
• Process engineering
• Civil engineering
• Commercial

Please note this does vary according to business need and available roles will be updated on www.babcockgraduates.com so please check first.

We want to make sure you have a great experience with us and at the end of your undergraduate programme you will have developed both your technical and personal skills. We run several Masterclasses over the summer, these give you the opportunity to catch up with the rest of your cohort, meet senior business leaders and learn about what we do. We also incorporate skills sessions that focus on how to make an impact in your internship and next steps in your career.

If you have a successful placement you will be fast-tracked through the graduate assessment process and could return to university with a job offer!

Apply online at www.babcockgraduates.com

1. Online application
2. Online numerical, verbal and situational reasoning assessment
3. Telephone Interview
4. Invitation to the Cavendish Nuclear Discovery Days

• Group activities
• Interview
• Technical quiz
• Meet with Cavendish Nuclear Ambassadors informally

We are not trying to catch you out during the application process and will provide you with as many opportunities as possible to ask questions and discover if we are right for you.

Remember to apply as soon as possible, we typically run our telephone interviews in November to December and Discovery Days in February.

Apply online at www.babcockgraduates.com

• Online application
• Online numerical, verbal and situational reasoning assessment
• Interview

Please remember, we are not trying to catch you out during the application process and will provide you with as many opportunities as possible to ask questions and discover if we are right for you!

Include all your work experience, education and awards even if you think it might not be relevant! Think carefully about why you want to work for Cavendish Nuclear, your covering letter gives you the perfect opportunity to get this across. Always use spell check and ideally ask someone to read it through before sending.

There are many practice tests you can take online so attempt as many mocks tests as you can. Your careers service will also be able to help you with this.

Do you research and think about what you as an individual could bring to Cavendish Nuclear. This is an informal conversation and we want to discover the real you so relax!

Always prepare beforehand. Practice interviews and presenting with friends, family or your university careers service. Make sure you do your homework about us and put together a list of those all important questions.