Only the best will do: how we recruit our degree apprentices

We’re proud of our degree apprenticeship programmes and how they’re shaping the workforce of the future. Our degree apprenticeships empower apprentices to work full-time, study for a fully funded degree and earn a competitive salary – all while developing essential skills to build a meaningful career.

We’ve carefully designed our recruitment process to not only be fair and inclusive but to make sure we find the right people for a degree apprenticeship at E.ON.

Entry onto our schemes is competitive. This year we received over 2,800 applications for our seven degree apprenticeship programmes on offer. So, let’s find out more about the recruitment journey – and how we’re supporting every candidate to present their best self.

Attracting a diverse group of applicants

Before the application process even starts, we’re already working hard to ensure we attract applicants from a range of backgrounds.

We strive to reach different groups of people by advertising our degree apprenticeships across a range of platforms such as our careers website and apprenticeship platforms such as Gov.uk or Unifrog. We also work closely with local schools to take part in careers events and our colleagues, including our current degree apprentices, often visit different schools and engage with students about what a degree apprenticeship can offer.

But it goes deeper than this. We work closely with the Multicultural Apprenticeship and Skills Alliance to understand best practice when it comes to diversity and inclusion in apprenticeship recruitment and ensure we apply this to our entire recruitment process. And we recently took steps to increase the number of women applying for our STEM programmes through initiatives such as ‘Females in STEM careers’ insight days at our Nottingham office.

Offering support during our online recruitment

The first stage of the application process is a quick and easy online application so we can find out some information about you. And candidates also need to upload either a CV or personal statement, whichever they feel best suits them.

This is also candidates’ first opportunity to let us know whether they have any health conditions. This enables us to make reasonable adjustments and better support them through their application journey.

Candidates who meet our basic requirements are then invited to complete our online assessments, including a personality or logical reasoning test and business scenarios, which help us get to know our candidates a whole lot better and check their suitability for the role and for E.ON.

We also ask our candidates to complete a short video interview to help us find out more about them and why they’re applying for a degree apprenticeship with us. But we appreciate that a video interview isn’t always right for every candidate. And that’s why we offer phone interviews as a reasonable adjustment for those who need it.

Building a rapport with candidates in person

If you’re successful online, you’ll be invited to an in-person assessment centre at one of our offices.

Right from the start, care and inclusivity are at the heart of our assessment centres. Our Early Careers team invites each candidate to the assessment centre over the phone. This allows the candidate to have a chat beforehand and ask any questions. What’s more, the team have also been known to settle the nerves of many parents ahead of their child’s big day. 

We understand the benefits an in-person assessment centre delivers – and our candidates appreciate it too. It gives them the opportunity to see the office and meet assessors from around the business, giving them a good understanding of what life is like at E.ON and whether it’s a good fit for them. Plus, they can meet other degree apprentice candidates too.

To help even the playing field for all candidates, who can often come from different economic backgrounds, we cover expenses for those who have to travel to take part in the assessment centre – ensuring that finances aren’t a barrier to great talent securing a role.

When candidates arrive for their assessment centre, they first take part in an ice breaker to help put them at ease and for the Early Careers team to learn more about them outside of a recruitment process. The candidates then go on to complete tasks including a pre-prepared presentation, a competency-based interview and group activity.

What happens next?

Members of our Early Careers team personally phone candidates who have taken part in an assessment centre to give them the news of whether or not they’ve been successful.

For those who aren’t successful, we strive to provide valuable and actionable feedback to help them secure the perfect role for them elsewhere through an individual, tailored call to candidates who request feedback. And for the lucky few who are offered roles within E.ON, we continue to support them once they’ve accepted our offer. Our Early Careers team keeps in touch with successful applicants over the next few months offering support and advice.

A WhatsApp group is set up with all the new degree apprentices joining so they can start to get to know each other and the team organises a welcome day for the new apprentices to visit the office and familiarise themselves with their new environment. The Early Careers team also keeps in touch with regular phone calls, sharing advice on moving to Nottingham if relevant and also supports the apprentices through the recruitment process at university.

And it doesn’t stop once our apprentices have accepted their offer. Our Early Careers team continues to act as a key point of contact for our degree apprentices, supporting them throughout their entire degree apprenticeship programme.

We can’t wait to introduce you to the 17 degree apprentices that will be joining us in September so stay tuned for more.

If you want to find out more about careers at E.ON, visit our careers website. And to find out more about our degree apprenticeships, visit our early careers webpage.