Social Value Graduate Management Trainee (office-based)

About the opportunity:

As a Social Value Management Trainee**,** you'll play an important role in helping us create positive social, economic, and environmental outcomes within the communities where we work. You'll gain hands-on experience supporting the delivery of social value initiatives, community engagement activities, employment and skills programmes, and wellbeing campaigns across the business.

Working closely with a variety of internal teams, customers, community organisations and supply chain partners, you'll help coordinate projects, analyse performance data, and contribute to meaningful initiatives that make a lasting difference. This is an exciting opportunity to develop your stakeholder management, project coordination and reporting skills while building a career in social value and community impact.

What you will do:

Over the course of the programme, you will:

• Support the delivery of employment, skills and community engagement initiatives, including careers fairs, work experience placements, internships and pre-employment programmes.
• Assist with the coordination, tracking and reporting of social value activities to ensure commitments and targets are achieved.
• Collect, analyse and maintain data relating to social value performance, helping to measure and demonstrate the impact of initiatives.
• Support the management of social enterprise engagement activities, including spend reporting, impact tracking and identifying opportunities for improvement.
• Contribute to customer reports, project impact summaries, case studies and presentations that showcase social value outcomes.
• Develop and maintain positive relationships with colleagues, customers, community groups, charities, education providers and other external stakeholders.
• Support local community engagement activities by researching community needs and helping identify opportunities to create positive impact.
• Assist in creating and maintaining guidance documents, resources and best practice materials to support project teams.
• Support the management and updating of SharePoint sites, website content and internal communications relating to social value activities.
• Work collaboratively with colleagues across the business to help deliver group-wide social value, wellbeing and community campaigns.
• Gain the relevant technical and behavioural knowledge for your role, through the completion of a technical manual, behavioural workshops, short-term placements and relevant qualifications.

About you:

To be successful, you'll:

• Be passionate about building a career in the built environment.
• Be curious, eager to learn and committed to your personal development.
• Build positive relationships and work collaboratively with others.
• Take ownership of your work and act with integrity and professionalism.
• Approach challenges with a positive, solution-focused mindset.
• Be organised, adaptable and able to prioritise effectively.
• Be committed to delivering high standards and making a positive impact.

What's in it for you?

At Wates, we're committed to helping you build a successful career in construction. Alongside hands-on experience in your chosen career pathway, graduates who do not hold a degree in a construction-related subject will be enrolled onto a relevant Level 4 apprenticeship, providing additional learning and development to help accelerate your career in the built environment.

You'll also benefit from mentoring, structured training, behavioural workshops and support from experienced professionals throughout your programme. We encourage and support our trainees to continue their professional development through industry-recognised qualifications and, where applicable, work towards chartership.

In addition, we offer:

• Competitive salary
• Private medical insurance
• Car allowance
• Health & wellness programme
• 26 days holiday + bank holidays
• Birthday Day off

Entry Requirements

To be eligible for this programme, you must:

• By September 2027, you must have obtained a bachelor's degree with a predicted or achieved classification of 2:2 or above;
• A full UK driving licence is required.

Location: Warrington

Important: Travel Requirements

As a project-based business, our teams work across a variety of locations. Depending on the role, you may be required to work from different project sites within the region or nationally throughout the programme.

Please carefully consider this requirement before applying, as travel and mobility are essential parts of the role. Successful candidates must be willing to travel in line with project and business need.

Ready to apply?

If this sounds like the opportunity for you, we'd love to hear from you!

Applications close on 10 November 2026.

A few things to consider before you apply:

• Some vacancies might close earlier if we receive a high volume of applications, so we encourage you to apply as soon as possible
• We value authenticity and encourage you to complete your application without the use of AI tools. This helps us gain a genuine understanding of your individual strengths, experiences and potential.
• Only one application will be accepted per recruitment year. Any additional applications will be automatically withdrawn.

About Wates

Established in 1897, we are one of the UK's leading family-owned development, building and property maintenance companies. With 6,000 employees and now in our fourth generation of family ownership, we're committed to the long-term sustainability of the built environment and to making our industry more inclusive and representative of the communities we work in.

With multiple businesses working across the built environment, we can offer a wide range of career opportunities.

As part of our trainee programme, you'll join a network of around 200 peers, learning and working together as you build connections and develop your career at Wates.

Our commitments

Wates is proud to be an employer where everyone can thrive, and we welcome applications from candidates of all backgrounds.

If you require reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, we will be happy to support you. To discuss your requirements, please contact us at [email protected].

Please note that some roles may require additional pre-employment checks due to the nature of the work.

Benefits

Private healthcare

Pension scheme

Life assurance

Flexible benefits

Generous holiday

Enhanced family leave & policies

Car salary sacrifice scheme