British Steel has received 5,400 applications for 140 trainee positions at its Scunthorpe and Teesside operations over the last 6 months.
Since opening applications on the 1 October 2016, the company has had an incredible response for graduate, undergraduate, apprentice and work experience vacancies.
Applications have now closed and the company is in the process of selecting the 140 trainees who will join British Steel this year. One hundred and twenty three of the new starters will be based in Scunthorpe, the remaining 17 at the company’s Teesside Beam Mill.
Paul Martin, British Steel Managing Director, said: “I’m delighted at the number of applications we’ve received; this signifies a real vote of confidence for British Steel as a company and that people have bought into our vision for the future.
“The fact we’ve had so many applications shows that people of all ages view us as a strong, viable company with a bright future, and clearly somewhere they feel they could have a career.
“The standard of applications has also been extremely high and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who applied to join us.”
An average of 39 people applied per position and Helen Lee, British Steel Early Careers Recruitment Co-Ordinator, said: “We’ve had a fantastic response to our trainee roles since October, particularly for our graduate and undergraduate positions.
“Whilst naturally we attract a lot of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) graduates and students due to the technical nature of steel manufacturing and engineering, our functional positions such as procurement have also proved very popular with applicants.
“I think this shows people can see it’s an exciting time to be part of the British Steel team, and now’s the time to join us.”
Thirty trainees have already joined the business this year. In March, 12 manufacturing and technical apprentices started their careers with British Steel on Teesside through a partnership with Middlesbrough College. And this month 18 manufacturing trainees started work at our Scunthorpe steelworks – the first time in more than a decade the company has recruited into such roles.
In total, British Steel employs 4,800 people across the world and has taken on more than 350 people since it was launched in June last year.
For more information on careers at British Steel, please visit www.britishsteel.co.uk/join-our-team/ or email recruitment@britishsteel.co.uk