Babcock International Group

Graduate jobs explained

Babcock International Group usually accepts around 80 graduates a year within the UK across a variety of schemes. Depending on the career path taken, graduates will also be studying for professional accreditation.

Types of roles

There are two main categories of graduate job: business support, and engineering and technical.

Both schemes typically involve a 2-year development period, during which graduates will undertake placements in a number of different areas. After the initial 2 years, they will usually move into their first permanent role.

Business support

This is open to graduates from various backgrounds, and involves work in a range of different commercial and management functions across the business. Placements can be in a number of different locations across the UK. Areas of specialism include:

• Business - placements may be in areas such as business development, finance, human resources, and operations.
• Commercial - placement work can include bid activity, price negotiation, and project work.
• HR - this is focused around becoming a generalist HR professional, and includes work on projects and bids.
• Operations - this covers areas like bid activity, business development, and supply chain management.
• Procurement - this involves dealing with suppliers, negotiating cost effective supply deals and pre-contract tendering work.

Engineering and technical

This is for graduates from a relevant technical background, and involves technical and project management work. Again, placements can be at various sites across the UK. Roles include:

• Civil/structural engineer - this includes design and installation work across a variety of engineering and commercial projects.
• Development chemist - this role is mainly based around analytical services, and includes work using chromatography and mass spectrometry.
• Electrical, control and instrumentation engineer - based in the nuclear division, this involves full project life-cycle work such as installation.
• Electrical/electronic engineer – placements may be in a range of divisions such as technology or marine electrical.
• Mechanical engineer - placements can include construction and refurbishment, innovation and development, installation and project engineering.
• Naval architect - within marine and technology, this roles covers a range of technical work across commercial and military contracts.
• Physicist - this includes work at both company and customer sites, and covers commercial and technical activities.
• Process engineer - this role is based within the nuclear business, and covers all elements of nuclear projects, from conception to decommissioning.

Work experience explained

In terms of work experience, there are two different programmes:

• Ten- to twelve-week summer internship programme
  This takes part in the summer vacation and is designed to give students an insight into a particular area of the company and to explore their interest in it.
• One-year or six-month internships
  These are part of a sandwich course. After the placement has finished, students are expected to write a report on what they have done and to give a presentation. This is used as an assessment process – students deemed to have had a successful placement may find that Babcock sponsors the final year of their degree course.

Training and development

The company places graduates in a number of different placements for the first couple of years of their scheme so they can gain a feel for how the business works overall. Then graduates are placed for a further two years in a unit they wish to specialise in.

Graduate courses

The courses undertaken by graduates during their initial two years of training will vary according to the discipline they have chosen. For example, electrical engineers may attend courses on:

• First aid
• Climbing and tower rescue training
• Manual handling

However, some courses are common to several different graduate schemes; both electrical engineers and business specialists will undergo management development, finance, and soft skills training.

Further study and accreditation

Training for graduates in technical roles is recognised and accredited by a variety of engineering institutions, which include the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), the Royal Institution of Naval Architects (RINA) and the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).

Non-technical roles also include opportunities for further education, either towards professional qualifications or postgraduate degrees in a relevant field. Accrediting bodies include the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA).

University partnerships

Babcock has close training ties with the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, having operated its executive development programme, BIG Academy, in partnership with Strathclyde Business School for several years.

The two organisations also recently announced a staff-swap plan, in which employees of each will spend some time working on secondment at the other. It is hoped that the experience of working in a different environment, with different people, will help staff to broaden their knowledge and skills.