Engineering & industrial: which graduate schemes sponsor visas?
Two walls here: grad pay below the threshold at consultancies, and security-clearance or nationality bars across defence, nuclear and aerospace.
- 0
- Sponsors international grads
- 3
- Sponsors some tracks only
- 5
- Does not sponsor
- 18
- No published policy
Some tracksSponsors some tracks only
BAE Systems
Graduate Development Programme
Role-dependent: nationality, prior nationalities and place of birth can exclude candidates from export-controlled roles; BPSS minimum for all, higher NSV needs 5-10yr residency
Leonardo UK
Graduate Programme
SC-eligibility requires a minimum 5 years' UK residency, a de facto block for most recent arrivals regardless of nationality
Babcock International
Graduate Programme
Sponsorship is conditional on obtaining the required security clearance, not an outright refusal
NoDoes not sponsor
Airbus
Airbus Global Graduate Programme
Airbus explicitly states Skilled Worker visa sponsorship is not possible for the UK graduate programme
AtkinsRéalis
Graduate Development Programme
Explicitly stopped sponsoring due to the April 2024 salary threshold change
MBDA UK
Graduate Scheme
Explicit blanket statement: unable to sponsor any visa applications, despite holding a live sponsor licence
AWE
EVOLVE Graduate Programme
British-citizen-only policy is well-established public fact; corroborated this session by total absence from the gov.uk sponsor register
Laing O'Rourke
Graduate Programme
Laing O'Rourke's own graduate job postings state the roles do not provide visa sponsorship.
Not publishedNo published policy
Rolls-Royce
Graduate Programme
Own site is silent on visa sponsorship; base grad pay sits just under the new entrant threshold
Jaguar Land Rover
Graduate Engineering Programme
Silent on visa sponsorship across every reachable page; pay straddles the new entrant threshold
Dyson
Graduate Programme
FAQ deflects the visa question rather than answering it
Arup
Graduate Programme
UK graduate pages could not be reached (Cloudflare/region-gate); only a general US-redirected careers page was accessible
Mott MacDonald
Graduate Development Programme
Official FAQ retrieved in full and contains no visa, nationality or salary statement
Jacobs
Graduate Programme
Global FAQ describes case-by-case visa handling but is not UK-specific and does not confirm sponsorship
WSP
Graduate Programme
Graduate pages were mid-refresh for the 2026 intake and carried no visa statement
Buro Happold
Graduate Programme
Careers and early-careers pages both fully accessible and both silent on visa sponsorship
National Grid
Graduate Programme
Careers site is behind an active bot/security challenge; could not be reached this session
Network Rail
Graduate Scheme
Graduate scheme page fully accessible, no visa or salary statement
Siemens
Siemens Graduate Program
Programme page describes the 2-year, 3-assignment structure but is silent on visa sponsorship
Thales UK
Graduate Programme
UK careers page is silent on visa sponsorship; no employer statement found despite multiple attempts
Shell
Shell Graduate Programme
Heavily JS-rendered site yielded only a thin fragment; no visa or salary statement retrieved
BP
Graduate Programme
Every bp.com careers URL tried this session was unreachable
EDF Energy
Graduate Programme
FAQ requires a right-to-work check but does not say whether EDF will sponsor to obtain it
SSE
Graduate Development Programme
Both the careers overview and the graduate development page are silent on visa sponsorship
Balfour Beatty
Graduate Programme
Graduates early-careers page accessible, no visa or salary statement
Costain
Graduate Programme
Careers FAQ page accessible in full, no visa or salary statement
Other sectors
Apply where you can actually be hired
Start from the schemes that sponsor, then scan your CV against UK applicant tracking systems for free before you apply.
Sponsorship data: Home Office register + job ad wording. Not immigration advice, verify on gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.