Higher apprenticeship trainee route
Reimagine your career journey
Apply now and reimagine your career journey.
Build your future with Wates to develop your skills, gain industry experience and progress your career.
Our structured three-year higher apprentice trainee programme will give you the foundations you need to build your career. You will receive a bespoke development plan, industry-recognised qualifications and mentoring and support throughout.
Once you’ve completed your programme, you will progress into the next stage of your career at the assistant manager level.
Unlock your career potential
To join us as a higher apprentice trainee, you must have achieved:
- Grade 4/C or above in GCSE Maths and English (or equivalent), and
- You must have obtained or be working towards a minimum of 2 A-Levels at grade D or above, or an equivalent qualification, such as Level 3 NVQ, T-Level or other comparable Level 3 qualifications.
You don’t need previous work experience. However, you must show you can work in a team, collaborate and communicate with others, and take a proactive approach to your career.
Technical and behavioural development
During the programme, we will give you the tools, guidance, and support you’ll need for your role. We want you to build your confidence and know-how so you can excel here.
Behaviours, attitudes and values are important too. You’ll take part in fun and engaging workshops throughout the programme. These will focus on providing you with powerful insights to align with our professional standards.
You will also complete several placements as part of our programme. This will give you a well-rounded view of a project’s life cycle. Placements will last a few weeks at a time. They are a great way to meet new people, ask lots of questions and develop your knowledge.
Step into an exciting industry with plenty of prospects
There are incredible opportunities available in the built environment.
With a wide range of roles across many areas, there’s a place for you in our supportive culture, so you can establish a successful career and flourish.
Shining a spotlight on our talented trainees at our special event
We celebrate our promoted trainees with a memorable awards presentation that highlights our passion for nurturing and championing talent, recognising hard work and fostering an environment where people can succeed, flourish and embody our purpose.
Qualifications you will receive
Professional qualifications are integral to our programme. Depending on your degree subject, you will gain the industry-recognised qualifications you need to succeed.
- Non-industry-related degree: You’ll work towards a level 4 qualification in the relevant subject for your role, so you have the knowledge required to progress to Chartership. This will be with either the CIOB (Chartered Institute of Building), CIBSE (Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers) or RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors).
- Industry-related degree: If you have a related industry degree, you can begin your Chartership immediately.
Pathways available
Our Building Services teams focus on how the design, installation and maintenance of services and equipment can support a great building. For this discipline, you will play an important role in a project’s life cycle.
You will focus on developing your technical on-site knowledge, as well as your commercial and project management skills.
In this programme, you’ll rotate across key business functions including Commercial, Production, Bid, Finance and IT. This will give you a broad overview of the business, so once you’ve finished the programme, you can decide which discipline to work in.
This programme helps you build an understanding of the commercial function within a project, for example, cost, profit and risk management.
You will also build relationships with external customers and our supply chain, and will actively monitor the financial status of projects.
In this programme, you’ll be helping design a project in order to reduce risk and maximise return.
You will engage with a variety of stakeholders, from architects to subcontractors. You’ll maintain good relationships throughout as you collaborate, review and analyse information around the design.
For this programme, you will support the Project and Land team. You will focus on finding new land opportunities, as well as consultant and stakeholder management and planning.
You will have a commercial focus and be involved in work-winning during the bidding / pre-construction phase of projects.
Your tasks will include preparing cost estimates, completing tender documents and producing cost plans, while building key stakeholder relationships.
In this programme, you will play a vital role in both the pre-construction and construction phases of a project.
You will develop plans, schedules and programmes to ensure projects run to timescales and to the highest standards.
You will closely monitor the project’s life cycle and collaborate across teams to identify potential risks and opportunities.
You will help to ensure projects are delivered safely, on time and within budget.
You will oversee subcontractor and operative activities and be involved with several of our business workstreams, placing you right at the heart of everything.
In this programme, you will help our Social Value team to organise and run projects and activities that support our local communities. For example, supporting pre-employment programmes and working with social enterprises.
You will build and maintain strong relationships with stakeholders and support the team with reporting to monitor impact.
As a Student Engineer Trainee at Wates, you will be responsible for the functional characteristics of a building that take it from being an empty shell to becoming a comfortable occupied space.
Tasks may vary from designing the air filtration system in a forensic lab, controlling the temperature in an office or engineering the floodlights in a sports stadium. This is an exciting opportunity to be involved in a broad and varied role within the construction and building services industry
As a Planning Management Trainee at Wates, you’ll be given the fantastic opportunity to be part of both preconstruction and construction project teams.
You’ll work across a wide range of construction projects, including leisure centres, schools, high-rise developments, prisons, hospitals, offices and more.
As a Student Surveyor at Wates, you will develop an understanding of the commercial function within a project. This will include understanding the process and activity in relation to cost, profit and risk management.
Why choose Wates
Supportive and inclusive environment
Competitive industry salary
Professional qualifications
Learning and development
Health & wellness programme
Car allowance or company car
Volunteering days
Employer pension contribution
Industry-leading family policies
Trainee success: Inspiring career stories
Applications open autumn 2026
- We open applications for our trainee programmes once a year.
- We can only accept your first application and will automatically withdraw additional applications.
- As part of the process, you must complete an application form and answer several Situational Application questions.
- The next stage is a recorded video interview.
- The final stage of the process will be at the Assessment Centre.
- We will let you know the outcome of your application within a week of attending the Assessment Centre.
- If we offer you a place, we will keep in touch with you through events and networking opportunities before you start in September.
Register your interest
Be the first to apply when our early career vacancies are available.
