Graduate and University Placement year opportunities

[WAB]

Year in Industry placements
I thought it might be useful to share details of some of the year in industry placement positions open to university students looking to take a year out working in the industry. They are a great way to get to know the industry, make contacts, and start a long-term career on the railways. Even for those applying in subsequent years, it gives a hint of what is available. It's definitely worth doing a placement year for myriad reasons, including getting you skills for your CV for when you graduate, increased confidence and often improved academic performance when you return to university for your final year.

Some of the salaries on offer are pretty generous and compare very favourably to the national median salary, and you often get free/PRIV rate travel thrown in too!

Here are some of the posts which have been advertised in 23/24:

• GTR - Train Planning, based at King's Cross. £29,000 pa. (applications tend to open in October/November)
• SWR - Train Planning, based at Waterloo. £27,169 pa. (applications closed early-December)
• London Overground (Arriva Rail London) - Train Planning, based at Swiss Cottage. (applications closed January/February)
• Cross Country - stations, train planning or marketing, based in Birmingham. £19,253 pa. (applications closed January/February)
• Northern - operations; customer & commercial; infrastructure change (project management); finance, corporate functions; safety, health, environment & crime; innovation; stakeholder & community engagement. Based in Leeds, Manchester or York depending on role. £21,910 pa. (applications close 21 April 24).
• Greater Anglia - Marketing, IT, Finance and Asset Management. £20,075 pa. Available only to students at University of Essex, University of East Anglia, University of East London and Anglia Ruskin.

Network Rail and TfL also tend to offer engineering, property and commercial-related placements, generally offering c.£19,000 per annum.

Less obvious rail placements and internships can often be found at ORR, Atkins, Arup, Systra, Mott MacDonald

Feel free to add any other year in industry opportunities.

 

[Horizon22]

Posted to allow @WAB to update their message.

 

[WAB]

Graduate jobs
I thought it might be useful to share details of some of the graduate positions open to recent or upcoming university graduates. They are a great way to get to know the industry, make contacts, and start a long-term career on the railways. Even for those applying in subsequent years, this list gives a hint of what is available. Whilst these roles are competitive, they are a good way into the industry, particularly graduate schemes which give you rotations throughout your function in a way which is generally not available in other roles.

Some of the salaries on offer are pretty generous and compare very favourably to the national median salary, and you often get free/PRIV rate travel thrown in too as well as a good pension!

Here are some of the posts which have been advertised in 23/24:

General jobs well-suited to graduates

• GTR - Trainee Train Planner, based at King's Cross. £30,000 pa. (applications closed 15-Nov-24)
• SWR - Train Planning, based near Waterloo. £31,772 pa. (applications closed 08-Dec-24)

Graduate Schemes

• TfW - Various graduate schemes, in the fields of rail ops management (stations, control, traincrew, planning, safety, etc.), fleet engineering, bus, active travel, commercial, finance, transport planning. Mostly based in Pontypridd, £28,000 pa. (applications closed 16-Mar-25).
• West Midlands Trains - Graduate Scheme, based in Birmingham. Rotations throughout the business (stations, property, traincrew, control, planning, corporate, etc.). £30,000 pa. (applications closed 31-Dec-24).
• CrossCountry - Graduate Scheme, based in Birmingham. Rotations in control, planning, fleet, finance, safety, projects, traincrew etc. £29,000 pa. (applications closed 16-Feb-25).
• Northern - Graduate Scheme, based in Leeds/Manchester/York. Rotations in stations, control, engineering, customer experience, marketing, commercial, finance, projects etc. £30,995 pa. (applications closed 19th May 2024)
• Network Rail - Graduate scheme based UK-wide. Operations (with rotations in signalling, stations, NR control, incident response etc.), network strategy/planning & analysis, IT, finance, commercial & procurement, project management, property, civil/electrical/mechanical engineering. £32,000 pa plus £2,000 welcome bonus. (applications closed November 2024).
• RfL (via TfL) - Elizabeth line Operations Graduate Scheme, based in Stratford, Romford and Plumstead. Rotations in signalling, control, incident response, projects, stakeholder management, competence, performance, train planning, etc.) £30,000 pa. (applications closed 8th Nov 2023).
• TfL - Various graduate schemes based in London in sustainability, civil/mechanical/fire engineering, architecture, data science, software development, strategic planning, finance, procurement, general management, real estate, projects, modelling and GIS. £28,500 pa. (applications closed 5th Nov 2023).

Less obvious rail graduate posts can often be found at ORR, Atkins, Arup, Systra, Mott MacDonald.

Feel free to add any other graduate opportunities.

 

[Horizon22]

Personally I find it interesting how graduate scheme salaries seem to have barely risen in 10 years...

 

[WAB]

Personally I find it interesting how graduate scheme salaries seem to have barely risen in 10 years...

I found some old graduate scheme adverts from the early 2000s and the going rate in today's money was £38,000. Not quite satisfactory! Especially XC - given the hours they actually work, that's a fair bit below minimum wage and they start off working a desk in the ROC! I don't suppose these salaries would survive an improvement in the job market, tough.