Apprentices, Graduates and Placements

Whether you are a school leaver, at University or wanting to retrain, there are a variety of opportunities with the Met Office.

Below are some of our early careers schemes. If any of these sound like programmes you would like to participate on, take a look at the adverts on our vacancies page to find out more about the current opportunities available, how to apply and the closing date for getting your application submitted in time. If we aren’t currently advertising for the scheme you want to apply for, you may want to sign up for job alerts to be notified when applications open.

Work Experience

The Met Office runs a virtual work experience programme for 13-18-year-olds, enabling young people to gain a broad understanding of what we do, develop employability skills and learn more about available career pathways.

Through a series of modules, interactive sessions and project completion, our virtual work experience programme offers a glimpse of what it is like to work for the Met Office, a large, world-leading organisation.  It is also designed to help inform career plans and shows how knowledge and skills developed through formal education can be applied in the workplace.

Designed in partnership with Springpod* (our virtual work experience host), the summer 2023 programme runs from 3 to 21 July 2023 and can be completed within one week or across any period of time during the 3-week window. To register, please follow the link: Met Office Careers: Forecasting Your Future.

The Met Office is revising its opportunities for in-person work experience.  To be eligible to apply, we ask that you have completed the virtual work experience programme, detailed above.  More information on in-person work experience will be added to this page before the end of the 2022/23 academic year.

*Springpod is a specialist careers platform enabling young people to experience the world of work and university, in order to make informed decisions about their futures. Created to democratise access to opportunity for young people, their mission is to transform young people's futures by providing life-changing career experiences and opportunities for all.

Apprentices

We currently have apprentices in various professions across the organisation including Technology, Human Resources, Engineering, Legal Services, Project Management and Finance. These range from Level 2 to Level 6 programmes and offer a fantastic chance to work whilst learning and gaining a qualification.

Some examples of the programmes we have offered recently include:

Level 4 Project Management

2-year programme working within the Programmes Directorate alongside project and programme management professionals, allowing you to develop your knowledge, skills and understanding in project management whilst contributing to the Met Office aims.

You will gain a Level 4 Certificate in Project Management and also a nationally recognised IPMA Level D or APM Project Management Qualification and eligibility for equivalent membership with APM on successful completion of the programme. This programme is open to those who hold a minimum of 5 GCSEs grades 9-4 or equivalent including English and Maths at grade 5 or above. 

Level 3 Paralegal

2-year programme with our in-house legal team covering contractual work, licensing of our intellectual property, regulatory work and research on specific topics.

Gaining a Level 3 Certificate in Law and Practice with the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEx) and potentially the Level 3 Diploma towards qualification as a Chartered Legal Executive, this programme is open to those who hold a minimum of 5 GCSEs grades 9-4 or equivalent including English and Maths at grade 4 or above and 2 A-Levels grade C or above (or equivalent). 

Placements and Internships

Industrial Placements

Our Industrial Placement scheme is a 12-month programme offering the opportunity to gain valuable industry experience.  Gaining hands on experience, placements will work in a team with experts in their field. This scheme has included placements in the Flood Forecasting Centre, Science, Technology, Comms and our Property departments.

Open to those currently studying for an undergraduate degree (sandwich course) that incorporates a placement year. Each placement advert will provide information on any specific requirements such as degree discipline i.e. mechanical engineering or computer science.

The Met Office values the contribution made by industrial placements and therefore for those who complete the Industrial Placement programme, there is the opportunity to return after obtaining your degree onto our graduate development scheme (see below).

Industrial Placement applications have closed for our 2023 programme. We expect to open applications again in the winter for our 2024 programme.

Summer Placements

Our 10-week paid placements are the perfect opportunity to gain hands-on work experience over the summer and get a valuable insight into the amazing things we do at the Met Office.  There are a range of placement opportunities to suit different skills and interests including Forecasting, Science, Technology, Marketing, Finance and HR.

Opportunities are open to those who have recently graduated from university or finished their A Levels and those currently studying.

We are sorry but we do not have any summer placement opportunities in 2023. We hope to open applications again in the winter for our 2024 programme.

Graduates

Many have joined us at graduate level and from the moment you start, whichever area you work in, we invest in your learning and development to help you continue your personal development.

We also have a great new graduate development scheme that will give you an immersive induction into the Met Office and the Civil Service and then gives you the freedom of choice when it comes to the area that you’re interested in. Offering personal development opportunities and real work placements you will follow your own bespoke development scheme with a key support system to help you be at your best.

Applications for our 2024 cohort open on 1^st September 2023.

We also offer graduate level opportunities across the organisation, such as Foundation Scientist, and programmes like our Operational Meteorologist Foundation Course (OMFC)

Wherever your skills lie, we’ve a wide range of opportunities for graduates.

Doctoral Training

The Met Office participates in the doctoral training of students to help to train the next generation of weather and climate scientists. Students working with the Met Office have the opportunity to work with leading weather and climate scientists to do Science with impact, where improved understanding or modelling may eventually be used in future climate projections or weather forecasts. Over the past decade, more than 60 PhD or DPhil students have completed their doctorate having been supported by the Met Office on a wide range of projects, reflecting the breadth of research the Met Office undertakes. Past projects have ranged from tackling the mathematics of modelling the atmosphere on different types of grid, to improving our understanding of physical processes in our atmosphere and how weather and climate impact people, infrastructure and resources.

The Met Office supports a number of doctoral studentships with key universities in the UK. We are partners in nine NERC Doctoral Training Programmes and three EPSRC Centres for Doctoral Training.

For prospective doctoral studentships, please use Find a PhD to find research projects which feature the Met Office as a partner.