Your environment, your career

Your environment, your career

CREATING TOMORROW TOGETHER

We are Wates, and we’re one of the largest privately-owned construction, development and property services companies in the UK.

With a 4,000 strong workforce, we collaborate with over 10,000 supply-chain operatives and partners, where together we inspire better ways of creating the places, the communities and the businesses of tomorrow.  Always focused on the future, we commit to the long-term impact of built environments, and always strive to leave a positive legacy within the communities in which we work and live.

Whether you’re a school or college leaver, an undergraduate, a graduate or a tradesperson already, we’re sure to have an Early Careers Programme to suit you.

Our Early Careers programmes are accessible to those from any academic background, who share our passion for the built environment.

They’re designed to help you find a role with us where you can grow and thrive – whatever your interests and skills.

There’s so much more to construction than bricklaying.

You don’t need construction experience to join us. We have over 4,000 employees working in office-based and operational roles.

From construction to residential development and property services, there are all kinds of specialisms for you to explore, including:

• Construction
• Property Services
• Fit Out and Refurbishment
• Residential
• Development
• Engineering Services
• Functional Support Services
• Facilities Management
• Environmental Sustainability
• Health, Safety and Wellbeing

And of course, you’ll be working on exciting, award winning and innovative projects. We’ve got a great history spanning over 125 years – that’s a lot of history, and we look forward to you joining us to make an impact. We are extremely proud of our heritage and achievements and we are sure that you’ll be proud to say “I work for Wates”

Whichever area of our business you choose to work in, you can be sure we recognise and support great talent.  Don’t take our word for it. We’ve been recognised independently for our work not only in the physical world, but also the support given to our colleagues across the business.

Sustainability

With the UK’s built environment responsible for 25% of its greenhouse gas emissions, it’s more important than ever to take on the challenge of making our sector more sustainable. Join our Graduate Trainee Programme and you could help the country by doing everything from building net-zero schools to retrofitting social housing. With committed people like you on board, we’ll achieve our ambition to become a net zero carbon, net nature-positive company.

In 2022, we achieved:

• 87% of electricity bought from renewable sources
• 53% reduction in greenhouse gases
• 2,686 zero-carbon retrofits
• 99% of our waste avoided landfill
• 2,417 children reached via the Green Schools project

We are proud of our sustainability credentials and we encourage you to take 5 minutes out to view this video.

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion

We’re building a fairer tomorrow at Wates – not only for the communities we work in but for our colleagues, too. Our ambition is to become a measurable more diverse business and be recognised for making our industry more inclusive – being an Investors in People gold-accredited employer and one of The Times’ Top 50 employers for women is a good start.

Everyone here is treated with fairness and respect, we have equity in pay and progression opportunities, and we always hire the best person for the job – regardless of background.

From smashing gender stereotypes to promoting allyship, we’re working hard to be representative of the communities we work in. Our goal? To be an organisation where everyone loves to work, and where everyone can be themselves.

Social Value

At Wates we are driven by our purpose of working together to inspire better ways of creating the places, communities and businesses of tomorrow.

Delivering social value is intrinsic to our purpose and our goals of being a progressive and responsible employer. By considering social value in our business decisions, including the way we employ staff, engage with communities and buy products and services, we can cultivate a more sustainable and inclusive society, and demonstrate that business done well can be a force for good.

Our approach to social value is rooted in our belief that how we do business, is as important as what we do. Our Programmes and activities are focused on creating work and training opportunities, building sustainable communities through employment, skills and awareness, and advocacy of trade with the social enterprise sector.

In particular, we recognise the importance of developing ‘work ready’ employability skills from an early age, building bridges between school and work and continuing to extend opportunities to access or re-enter the workplace to those that find themselves excluded from it and throughout the year we are heavily involved with a number of initiatives which include.

• Insight Day / Virtual Insight Days
• Workshops
• Virtual and In-Person Engagement with Schools & Colleges
• Careers Fairs
• Summer Programmes
• Work Experience
• Site Tours
• Internships
• Our Career Ready Mentoring Programme / Our Beacon Programmes

Our Projects

To give you an insight of the fantastic work we deliver, take a look at three of our standout projects.

‘Envision’ Gigafactory in Sunderland

Sandwell Aquatics Centre in the Midlands

Lucent in Piccadilly Circus, London

Interested in learning more about what we do? Click here to view more of our project case studies.