How to attract entry-level talent to critical infrastructure

For people beginning their careers, the route into work is changing. The ISE Student Report 2026 found that graduate hiring increased by 4% in 2025/2026 following the previous year’s decline. School and college leaver recruitment also grew by 4%, continuing a longer-term expansion of non-graduate entry routes, although that growth has slowed from 20% in 2022/23.

That points to an early-career market where graduate schemes remain important but increasingly sit alongside established routes such as apprenticeships, industrial placements and technical education. For critical infrastructure employers, that creates more ways to attract and develop the skills they will need in the years ahead.

At the same time, employers in critical infrastructure are looking much further ahead. Energy generation is expanding and changing; the nuclear sector is preparing for new projects and a larger workforce. Across utilities and transport infrastructure, organisations need people who can support programmes that will run for years, often decades.

For example, Skills England estimates that priority occupations within clean energy will need to grow by more than 70% between 2025 and 2035. That projection does not even include replacement demand from people leaving the workforce. 

There is a clear opportunity for entry-level talent. The challenge is making these industries visible enough that people at the beginning of their careers consider critical infrastructure in the first place.

Why does early-career talent overlook critical infrastructure?

Part of the problem is familiarity. Young people are exposed to some career routes much earlier and more consistently than others, through education, social media, careers advice, work experience, and the employers they already recognise. Critical infrastructure can be much harder to picture if you have never had any exposure to the sector.

Someone choosing their first career route may understand broadly what a nuclear power station, electricity network, utilities provider, or rail operator does without knowing what careers sit behind them. That can create the impression that the opportunities are mainly for engineers or people who have already chosen a highly specialised technical route.

In reality, major infrastructure programmes draw on a much broader workforce. Alongside engineering disciplines, employers recruit into areas such as:

• Civils and trades
• Commercial and procurement
• Digital, technology, and data
• Planning and supply chain
• Project controls
• Business change and transformation
• Professional services like finance and human resources

The issue is not necessarily a lack of opportunity[1] . It is that many people entering the workforce never see enough of that opportunity to consider the sector in the first place.

Why critical infrastructure is a great choice for early-career talent

One of the strongest reasons to consider a critical infrastructure career is the amount of work already planned. Critical infrastructure programmes are attached to some of the biggest questions facing the UK: how we generate and distribute energy, maintain essential utilities, strengthen energy security, and build transport infrastructure capable of supporting communities and the economy for decades to come.

Take nuclear. The UK Government's 2026 response to the Nuclear Regulatory Review says the sector will require 24,000 new roles across civil and defence nuclear by 2030.

That demand is being created by programmes with long delivery horizons. Demand spans new nuclear build and defence programmes alongside decommissioning activity and the wider supply chain. This will require people at different stages of their careers for years to come. Someone joining the industry now is not entering a short-term hiring cycle. They can develop their career alongside programmes that may still be operating, expanding, or moving through new phases[2]  well into the future.

Clean energy presents a similar picture. Skills England projects an additional 161,000 workers across the wider clean energy sector between 2025 and 2035.

The nature of the work is changing too. Nuclear employers are developing their approach to digital skills and looking at how AI and advanced digital methods can support areas including nuclear safety and regulation. Elsewhere across critical infrastructure, increased digitisation is changing the mix of people required to design, operate, maintain, and improve essential assets.

The routes into that work are also varied. For some, the starting point will be a graduate programme. Others may enter through an apprenticeship, degree apprenticeship, technical qualification, or an entry-level role that combines work with structured development.

For somebody beginning their career, that creates scope to develop alongside sectors that will require skilled people for decades.

What's the solution to attracting more entry-level talent?

Critical infrastructure already offers many of the things people at the start of their careers are looking for: long-term career prospects, with work tied to nationally important projects and opportunities to learn within industries undergoing significant change.

However, having good opportunities does not automatically create a talent pipeline. Employers need to translate complex programmes and unfamiliar sectors into careers that a young person could picture themselves pursuing.

Build awareness of the opportunities available

Entry-level talent attraction needs to help people understand what working in critical infrastructure actually looks like. A description of the sector itself is rarely enough. Candidates need to see the connection between the organisation's projects and the jobs available within them.

For example, an energy business talking about a major generation programme can also show the teams responsible for planning the work, managing suppliers, or analysing project data. A rail employer can introduce young people to prior graduates or apprentices already working across live projects and show how their responsibilities have developed since joining.

This makes the opportunity much more tangible for someone considering where to start their career than a broad message about working in energy or national infrastructure programmes.

It can also challenge assumptions about who these industries are for. Someone studying economics, computer science, or business may never actively search for a career in nuclear or utilities. Seeing people with similar backgrounds already progressing in the organisation can change that.

Show where their career could take them

An entry-level role is only the starting point. People also want to understand what they could learn, how their responsibilities might develop and where that experience could take them over time.

That career path needs to be visible. For someone joining a project controls team, for example, the story could show how they build knowledge of scheduling and cost before taking responsibility for larger parts of a programme. Over time, that experience could lead into senior project controls or wider programme management roles.

The same applies to other routes into the sector. Someone could join a utilities business through a technical apprenticeship, gain experience working on operational assets and move into supervisory or specialist roles as their technical knowledge develops.

The precise route will differ between disciplines, which is why employers should use examples from people already in the business rather than presenting one generic graduate progression model.

A career-pathway graphic could work particularly well here. Following one employee from their first role through the different positions they have held would show the progression in a way that feels much more tangible to someone considering the sector.

Highlight the impact of the work

Critical infrastructure has an advantage that should be easier to communicate than it sometimes is. The work has a visible purpose.

People entering these sectors can contribute to the systems that generate electricity, supply water, or keep major transport infrastructure operating. Within large programmes, employers can make that connection clearer by showing how an individual role contributes to the delivery of the project.

A graduate commercial analyst working on a major energy programme may start by supporting supplier reviews or cost reporting. Seeing how that work influences procurement decisions and programme delivery helps make the wider impact of the role much clearer.

That sense of purpose aligns with what graduates themselves say they value. The June 2026 Graduate Outcomes data found that 85% of UK graduates considered their current activity meaningful, while 76% felt it fitted with their future plans. That gives some indication of how important purpose can be to people at the beginning of their careers. Critical infrastructure employers have a compelling story on both counts. The opportunity is to show candidates the connection between the work they would actually do and the wider outcome of the programme.

Reach early-career talent in the right places

Employers also need to reach people before they have narrowed down their career choices.

Universities remain important, but they are only one part of the early-careers market. Employers looking to build a broader pipeline should also think about FE colleges, technical education providers and apprenticeship routes, particularly for roles where practical experience and structured development may be more relevant than a traditional degree.

Turn early talent attraction into a long-term pipeline

Early-careers recruitment works best when the relationship starts before a vacancy needs to be filled.

Employers can use education partnerships and early-careers activity to build relationships with people who already understand the business and the programmes it delivers. When vacancies open, those applicants are starting from a very different position to someone encountering the organisation for the first time.

The recruitment process then needs to maintain that interest. Employers should understand which channels are bringing relevant candidates into the process, where good applicants are dropping out, and how long people are waiting between stages.

Over time, early-careers recruitment can become part of workforce planning rather than a separate annual campaign. Critical infrastructure will continue to need experienced engineers, project professionals, commercial specialists, and digital talent. The existing workforce alone cannot meet every requirement created by new programmes and long-term workforce change.

To attract more people at the start of their careers, critical infrastructure employers need to make these sectors visible before career choices have already been narrowed down. People should be able to understand how they can enter the industry, what they could contribute from the outset, and where that first opportunity could eventually take them.

Building your future talent pipeline

Attracting early-career talent into critical infrastructure is not only about filling entry-level roles. It is about building the workforce these sectors will need over the years ahead.

Rullion works with critical infrastructure organisations to help them plan for future workforce demand, reaching the right talent and building more sustainable talent pipelines.

If you are looking at how early-career talent could support your future workforce needs, speak to Dan, our Director of Talent & Skills.