Hundreds Of New Starters Begin Their Careers At Sellafield

11th September 2024

This year's cohort of apprentices and graduates will help drive forward work at the UK's largest and most complex nuclear site.

Up to 300 vocational and degree apprentices and 150 graduates are expected to join Sellafield Ltd in this year's intake.

Apprentices will step onto career pathways such as pipefitting, health physics monitoring, nuclear operatives, business administration, and electrical and mechanical disciplines.

They get on-the-job experience while studying and will carry out their training alongside hundreds of existing apprentices already on the company's books.

Graduates have embarked on their nuclear career in disciplines including engineering, science, project management, and business.

Those based at Sellafield will be supported by Lakes College, Gen2, QA, and University of Cumbria.

Warrington-based trainees will carry out their training at Wigan and Leigh College.

The recruitment of so many new starters underlines Sellafield Ltd's commitment to investing in skills and reflects the quality of the company's training programme.

This was demonstrated again earlier this year when Sellafield Ltd was named as one of the top 100 apprenticeship employers in England.

And such is the company's commitment to early careers development, the campaign to recruit the next cohort starts soon.

Sellafield Ltd's chief executive, Euan Hutton, said, "Year after year we surpass ourselves at recruiting such a high calibre of young people into the industry.

It really makes me proud that we offer long-term career opportunities in such an innovative and cutting edge industry to people across the region and beyond, who can work on world first engineering projects.

Michelle Lambon-Wilks, head of education and skills said, "Our Early Careers Programme has once again done an amazing job attracting future talent to ensure the company continues to drive its 100-year clean-up work safely and securely alongside our supply chain partners.

We are now looking ahead to our next campaign with recruitment for the next cohort of graduates which launched earlier this month, followed by apprentice scheme adverts due to open in November. These are exciting times.

Chris Nattress, principal and chief executive officer at Lakes College, said, "Everyone at Lakes College is ready to use our award-winning expertise and decades of high-level experience to train and educate these brilliant young people looking to pursue a career in the nuclear industry.

We look forward to nurturing the wealth of talent in this cohort to ensure they fulfil their potential and play a pivotal role in Sellafield Ltd's clean-up work over the decades to come.

Craig Smith, Gen2 managing director, said, "We’re excited to welcome a new cohort of apprentices on their exciting new career paths. Gen2 has been successfully training Sellafield’s apprentices for over 2 decades now, proudly watching as they progress into great opportunities in the local community.

We want to wish all the learners every success as they start their studies.

Sellafield Ltd is part of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) group, which is responsible for decommissioning the UK’s 17 earliest nuclear sites safely, securely and sustainably.

The NDA has a duty to maintain the skills required to deliver their mission and a proven track record in investing in career development, from apprentices and graduates, to training the existing workforce.

The NDA group, which include Sellafield Ltd, Nuclear Restoration Services, Nuclear Transport Services and Nuclear Waste Services have all seen an increase in the recruitment of apprentices with the NDA group graduate programme having doubled its intake this year.

Jacq Longrigg, NDA group Head of Leadership, Skills and Talent said, "This increase demonstrates NDA’s commitment to delivering its mission, ensuring a continued pipeline of young nuclear talent entering the sector and reflects the ambitions and commitments of the national nuclear skills plan which is co-sponsored by the Department for Energy, Security and Net Zero.

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