Early careers

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We believe everyone has potential and should be given the resources and support to thrive. That’s why we’re opening up opportunities for as many people as we can through our apprenticeships, graduate schemes, internships and work experience programmes – helping passionate people kickstart a successful and sustainable career.

Your background and experience really doesn’t matter. We’re looking for people with real passion and a burning desire to make things better. And, while you help us take care of our world, we’ll take care of yours – creating the environment you need to flourish.

It’s your journey and it begins at Thames Water.

Investing in success and sustainable careers

Our ultimate goal is a skilled workforce that’s supported by a strong education and skills system – one that will help our people and communities thrive, be open to all and provide fulfilling work for everyone.

We want to help create a fairer society and tackle real challenges, including in-work poverty and under-employment.

We’ve already set up several initiatives to do this:

  • Improving the diversity of our workforce by building a pipeline of skills from local communities and the education sector
  • Creating careers, not just jobs, by investing in our people and fostering a culture of lifelong learning
  • Establishing sustainable strategic skills partnerships, like 10,000 Black Interns and Workwhile
  • Becoming leaders in skills development, both in our industry and with our supply chain.

We’re determined to make a real impact by:

  • Investing in an appropriately skilled workforce
  • Providing opportunities for people not in education, employment or training
  • Working with the education sector to link curriculum with careers
  • Delivering quality apprenticeships for current and future employees
  • Connecting with local communities to show we’re a good employer.
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Apprenticeships

An apprenticeship gives you the brilliant combination of practical training, education and real work experience. You ‘earn while you learn’ from skilled and knowledgeable colleagues..

We’ve continued to invest in our apprenticeships, and we offer opportunities across the whole business to new apprentices and our colleagues who want to upskill. We offer a variety of options from level two to six, and all lead to professional qualifications, on a permanent basis with a competitive salary.

It doesn’t matter what skills you have – if you’ve got a passion for knowledge and the drive to manage your learning and working life, a Thames Water apprenticeship could be for you. Our apprenticeship scheme plays an important, central role in helping us nurture local talent and upskill our existing workforce. That’s why we’re committed to investing in more apprenticeships in the future – so anyone, at any age and level, has the opportunity to join us.

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Apprenticeship interview process

Step 1 - Apply online

You’ll kick off your apprenticeship application online, telling us a bit about yourself and why you want to join one of our apprenticeship programmes.

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Step 2 - Interview and assessment

Next, you’ll have a pre-screen interview then attend one of our virtual or in person assessment centres. You’ll have the chance to meet various Thames Water managers, who are all looking forward to meeting you.

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Step 3 - Onboarding

If you’re successful at the assessment centre, congratulations! You’ll be offered a role on one of our apprenticeship programmes. There will be a contract for you to sign and you’ll get access to our onboarding portal, where you’ll find all the information you need to get ready for your new career.

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The skills we’re looking for

Throughout the application process, we’ll be looking at how you demonstrate the following skills:


  • Listening - receiving, retaining and processing information and ideas

  • Speaking - communicating information and ideas

  • Problem solving - finding a solution to a situation or challenge

  • Creativity - using your imagination and generating new ideas

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The behaviours we’re looking for

During the application process, we’ll also be looking for examples of these behaviours:


  • Staying positive - using tactics and strategies to overcome setbacks and achieve goals

  • Aiming high - setting clear, tangible goals with a robust route to achieving them

  • Leadership - supporting, encouraging and developing others to achieve a shared goal

  • Teamwork - working collaboratively with others towards a shared goal



  • We’re also looking for people whose values reflect ours: reach higher, be better; take care; passionate about everything we do; be respectful and value everyone; be proud, be blue.

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Latest apprenticeship opportunities

Apprentice Project Engineer - Level 4

Lane End - DA2 8DH

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Apprentice Project Engineer- Level 4

Chertsey - KT16 0AR

Apply

Apprentice Project Engineer - Level 4

Speen - Newbury - RG14 1RT

Apply

Apprentice Project Engineer- Level 4

Bourne End - SL8 5NT

Apply
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Graduates

We welcome self-driven graduates, who have real passion and a burning desire to make things better, onto our two-year graduate programme. As a company, we have some big challenges ahead, and our graduates and apprentices all play a vital role in helping us tackle these head on.

Our graduate programmes focus on setting you up for success. We’ll look at your strengths and qualifications during the selection process and identify the best placement opportunity to help you thrive, rotating within the engineering team or our asset team.

The sheer scale of our major projects and the reactionary nature of our world means that no two days will be the same. You’ll learn and develop alongside world-leading experts, with exceptional professional development that will give you the skills, experience and competencies you need to build a successful and sustainable career.

We’re looking for self-motivated, resilient and proactive individuals who hold great passion for the industry we work in and share our future aspirations.

If you would like to register your interest please visit: Thames Water – Register Interest 23/24 Graduate Vacancies

Graduate interview process

Apply online

First, you need to create an account on our online application portal. Here you can browse the graduate vacancies. Once you’ve decided which vacancy you’d be the best fit for, you’ll need to give us a few personal details and a brief outline of your academic background. We’ll also ask you why you want to join Thames Water. It’s worth doing your research into our values, the company and the role you’re interested in.

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Behavioural assessment

If your online application shows you’re eligible for the graduate programme and you successfully answered our screening questions, we’ll ask you to take part in a behavioural assessment. This uses neuroscience to assess your behaviours and map these against what we look for. You’ll take part in various activities that identify resilience, relationship building and leadership behaviours.
Be as natural as possible - they’re designed to remove barriers for all candidates, and we want to see the real you. Whatever the result, you’ll get a personalised feedback report on your behavioural strengths.

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Video interview

If your behaviours match what we’re looking for, we’ll invite you to a video interview to answer some competency-based questions, and we’ll explore more about your motivation to join Thames Water. Don’t worry if you haven’t done a video interview before, we want you to do well and we’ll send you our top tips on how to perform at your best. You’ll also have the chance to answer some practise questions before you answer the real ones.

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Assessment centre

If you’re one of the high scorers at the video interview stage, we’ll invite you to the final stage of the process - our online or in-person assessment. You’ll have three activities to do - join a group discussion, an interview with someone from the hiring team and a presentation. We’ll send you everything you need to prepare beforehand including your schedule, any pre-reading and some FAQs so you can get an idea of what to expect. If you’ve got any reasonable adjustments for the day, just let us know - we’ll do everything we can to help you perform at your best.

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What we’re looking for in our graduates

We’ll want to see that you’re driven, eager to learn on the job and confident stepping into new environments. We’re also looking for people whose values reflect ours: reach higher, be better; take care; passionate about everything we do; be respectful and value everyone; be proud, be blue.

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Our benefits

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Health MOT

From annual health MOTs to physiotherapy and counselling, we’ll help you take care of you and your family’s health and wellbeing.

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Financial benefits

Take advantage of our wealth of financial benefits, from discounts and shopping vouchers to generous pension contributions and life assurance.

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Loyalty rewards

We reward loyalty and going ‘above and beyond’, through loyalty and instant awards schemes.

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Support package

Expect an impressive package of support to help you fulfil your potential and enjoy a successful and sustainable career.

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Flexible hours

You can work flexibly in lots of ways: changing your days or hours, compressed hours, job shares, changing location and flexible retirement.

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A day in the life of our apprentices

Be inspired by the stories of Shivani, Tania, and Fahriar, as they share their experiences as apprentices at Thames Water and why it could be the right decision for you too.

Shivani shares her journey of growth and learning, highlighting the supportive environment and hands-on experience she’s gained. Tania reflects on the opportunity to express her unique self and the rewarding feeling of contributing to essential services. Fahriar speaks of the exciting opportunities of linking his career to his passions, earning while learning, and gaining invaluable real-world experience. Join us on an apprenticeship journey that will shape your future.

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Two Thames Water apprentices walking and talking on an operational site A Thames Water apprentice smiling while working in the office
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Why put us top of your list?

If you want a career where you can make a daily difference to millions of people’s lives while helping to protect the environment for future generations, an apprenticeship or graduate position at Thames Water could be perfect for you.

When you join, you’ll become part of our thriving apprentice and graduate network and enjoy a comprehensive and tailored induction programme. This will be followed by a bespoke development programme to support your personal and professional development and enhance your career progression. As part of this, you’ll get involved in a range of activities and gain knowledge in areas such as mental health and wellbeing, sustainability and health and safety. In addition, you’ll join a variety of events, including our annual raft race.

From day one, we want you to do more than just show up – we want you to fully engage with every aspect of our development programme as these experiences aren’t just extras, they’re opportunities for your growth, development, and for forging meaningful personal and professional connections.

We work with organisations like the Apprenticeship Ambassador Network (AAN) to make sure we continue to offer the very best apprenticeships and graduate programmes, so you can be confident you’re getting a first-class start. Developing engineers can also work towards the competencies set out by the Engineering Council’s UK Standard for Professional Engineering Competence (UK-SPEC) through the Monitored Professional Development Scheme (MPDS).

If you’re into big plans and challenges, you’ve come to the right place:
Real purpose, real support, real opportunities… it’s your journey and it begins at Thames Water.