Atkins

Atkins 2023 graduate opportunities

Company Company Profile

Atkins is the UK’s largest engineering and design consultancy. We have the depth and breadth of expertise to respond to the most technically challenging and time-critical infrastructure projects, none more urgent than creating a low carbon future. In fact, we’re the first engineering consultancy to be awarded the Carbon Trust Standard in the construction and building management sector. In addition our Carbon Critical initiative gives businesses the world over the tools they need to cut their carbon effectively.

Whether it’s the concept for a new skyscraper, the upgrade of a rail network, the modelling of a flood defence system or the improvement of a management process, we plan, design and enable solutions.

Our skills lie in the expansive area of infrastructure – the wiring of society – encompassing buildings, transport and utilities (including energy and water) as well as work for national and local governments and other industrial clients. The social and environmental framework is crucial and we view all our projects in the context of the communities and in which they will be undertaken.

One of our own offices, The Hub in Bristol, has impressive sustainability credentials, rated ‘Excellent’ by the industry leading measure BREEAM.

Like The Hub, everything we work on has a real impact on people’s everyday lives. Take our pivotal role on Europe’s largest engineering project, Crossrail, where we’re designing everything from the 23km twin-bore tunnels beneath London to the look of Tottenham Court Road station.

We’re also proud to be the engineering design expert behind London 2012. As the first official engineering design services provider to an Olympic Games, Atkins is leading the sector and will showcase the London 2012 Games as a feat of engineering excellence. It’s exciting work – we’ll be making sure the athlete shooting for the hoop to win gold in the basketball competition will be doing so in a structure that will do justice to the occasion. We’ll be in charge of delivering the beach volleyball court that will transform Horseguards Parade. As the cyclists hurtle around the velodrome they’ll be doing so above a bed of once heavily contaminated soil that our engineers helped clean.

Then there’s the big one: the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). It’s one of the most ambitious science projects of our time and, as the architect engineer, Atkins will help create a device capable of generating ten times the power it consumes. And as we develop new technology, we’ll continue to pioneer ways of harnessing the power of nature – like Anaconda, a 200-metre snake-like tube that creates energy by pulsing 50 metres under the sea.

Apply: Atkins

Case Studies

  • Name: Richard, Engineering Design Graduate

Having graduated from Bristol University in Engineering Design, I joined Atkins Nuclear in Bristol along with the many other Bristol graduates that the office seems to attract. This meant that I would already be surrounded by familiar faces, and along with the great mix of people within Nuclear, the social side of the office was a real plus point. Aside from the social side, Atkins had a great reputation in Bristol for being a great place to work, and within Nuclear I was able to find myself working in a thriving industry.

During my time as a graduate at Atkins I have worked on projects for our main Client, British Energy. One of these was a structural modification to the boilers of an existing nuclear power station, in order to prolong its lifetime and continue to supply electricity to the National Grid. The project provided plenty of opportunity for me to develop a range of skills including design, working closely with Clients, and most importantly, practical experience on site. There is no substitute for seeing what you are working on and seeing how your design fits into such a vast and complex facility!

Training and Development at Atkins is like going shopping; you can pretty much get the training you want in order to develop into whichever role you feel is for you, whether it be a technical or managerial role. The support is very well organised through a 'group' structure, through which you can raise issues or get support regarding development or personal issues, for example.

Within the Nuclear team in Bristol the flexitime system is a real bonus. Being able to work different hours occasionally promotes a fantastic work-life balance. In addition to this, you can buy more holiday than the 25 allocated days, which means taking a long holiday is easily manageable. The office also organises so many activities through its Sports and Social Club which can range from brewery tours to football tournaments

  • Name: Hannah, Building Services Engineer - Mechanical

I graduated from the University of Sheffield with a MEng degree in Mechanical Engineering. After graduating I decided to take a gap year to go travelling and also used this time to apply for jobs to start when I returned.

In September 2008 I joined the Building Services team in Epsom as a Graduate Mechanical Engineer. The main aspects of Atkins which appealed to me were the diversity of work on offer and the international reputation of the company. The size of the company means that there are plenty of opportunities to work on some of the big high-profile projects whilst also having the chance to work on smaller, local projects where there are more opportunities for site visits and a bigger involvement in the project.

One of the first projects I worked on when I joined the company was a multi-use development in Bulgaria. This gave me experience straight away of working in a multi- disciplinary team, as Atkins’ structural engineers and architects were also involved. I assisted in the design of the heating, cooling and ventilation systems for the building and was responsible for producing the drawings for the concept design report. Since this I have worked on a variety of projects including an archive building in Brighton, Bluebell Railway platform regeneration and a zero carbon residential development in Bahrain. The latter of these was a huge challenge and I was given a lot of responsibility for the thermal modelling analysis of the building to determine the building’s annual carbon dioxide emissions. Most of my time at Atkins so far has been spent working with a dynamic thermal modelling program to help design mechanical systems, with a lot of emphasis on renewable technologies and assessing their suitability for projects.

I was given responsibility from the start and although I have found the work challenging, it has also been extremely interesting and colleagues have always been available to offer guidance and advice when needed. I have had regular meetings with my mentor to discuss my progress and the competencies I have achieved towards chartership. These informal meetings also give me a chance to identify areas for further development and possible work available to progress into these areas. As part of the graduate training scheme I have attended two training courses this year; one focusing on the technical skills required for the job and the other on the commercial aspects. The six-monthly appraisals during the graduate scheme are also a good opportunity to identify training courses you think would benefit your development.

There is a relaxed and friendly atmosphere within Atkins and although there is plenty of hard work to be done, there are also lots of opportunities for socialising. This year the building services team has organised a trip to Epsom Races and a golf evening and there are often subsidised graduate events, which recently have included a comedy night and a day of wakeboarding. These events are a great way to meet graduates from other offices and learn more about the other business units within Atkins.

I have learnt a huge amount over the last year and I am looking forward to the coming year when I expect to be challenged even more and given more responsibility for the projects I work on.

Application Procedure

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Apply: Atkins