Our three year programme will give you exposure to a variety of Centrica businesses and will help you to build the foundations of a successful career in finance. You will study for either a CIMA or ACCA qualification and we will give you the appropriate support in place to help you decide which of these is best for you. We will pay for your qualifications and give you the time off you need for study. During the programme you will have three one year placements, These will give you exposure to a number of Centrica businesses ensuring you gain a breadth of knowledge across the individual business units. International placements were offered in 2006 for the finance graduate programme for the first time and we will be looking to increase this in 2007.

During your first year you will be given a mentor from the senior management team in finance as well as a graduate buddy to support you through this first stage of the programme. The finance leadership team are committed to developing talent through the graduate scheme and the proof is given when our graduates move off the programme into their substantive role offering permanent long term investment to the business.

• 1st and 2nd year: Over the first two years you will typically gain a solid grounding in financial accounting and business finance. This will complement your studies by giving you practical experience of financial and management accounting issues.
• 3rd year: You will have the opportunity to broaden your skills into a more specialised area such as strategy or project / risk management and a possibility of international placement.

Training and development

We are proud of our training and development. Extensive on and off the job training will underpin your placements.

Year 1 - Core Management Skills:

• Customer focus
• Change management
• Time management
• Self management
• Effective communication
• Planning
• Problem solving
• Business awareness
• Decision making
• People management
• Team building
• Setting targets
• Delegation
• Coaching for performance
• Effective meetings
• Influencing skills
• Motivation
• Relationship management

Year 2 - Leadership Skills:

• Commercial awareness
• Leadership
• Career development
• Business awareness
• High potential training

Workshops, away days and training will set you up with the basics. We will run development centres to continue to help you gauge your performance and potential, which will help you formulate your personal development plan at the end of the first and second years. Where relevant, you will have the opportunity to study for professional qualifications such as the Certificate of Management Accounting, Certificate in Personnel Development or Certificate in Marketing. Your training and development will extend beyond our graduate programmes, on completion of which, your career will continue to be tracked by our talent management process.

Support Network
You will need support. Why? Giving you tough challenges means you will feel the pressure and even make mistakes. That is fine, it will help you learn and progress faster! You will need to take ownership of your career and be prepared to drive your own development. You are expected to make a significant contribution from the start. The programme is designed to stretch you and we place you with exceptional managers to ensure you are pushed to reach your potential. You will be charged with driving your own development, working with learning and development and talent management teams who will support your career progression. The support we offer is second to none - we have an outstanding team of experts on hand to coach and challenge you.

Benefits

• £2,100 signing-on bonus
• 23 days holiday
• Contributory pension scheme after three months employment
• Signing-on bonus
• Life insurance
• Flexible benefits package. The flexible benefits package is to the value of 3% of your annual salary per annum to spend on additional benefits of your choice.

Who we're looking for?

We are looking for self driven, high-calibre individuals, able to grasp complex commercial issues. In return we promise to provide the support, guidance and opportunities that are the key to creating the next generation of business leaders.

For General Management, Finance and Information Systems a minimum 2:2 degree classification is required in any subject. For Engineering a 2:2 is required in a related discipline and for Geoscience a 2:2 in a related discipline and an MSc is required.

Our assessment process is designed to identify candidates who can demonstrate strengths in the following competencies:

• Focusing on solutions
• Managing relationships
• Managing self
• Adapts to change
• Organises and plans ahead
• Learns and shares knowledge
• Focuses on the customer
• Delivers results

Recruitment Process

Our recruitment process has been designed with you in mind. It's fast and efficient, maximising the time you can spend on your studies or enjoying your gap year. We use online application forms and not CV based recruitment due to the nature of our competency based assessment process. There is an opportunity to record your work experience and extra-curricular activities within the application form. In addition, there is space to provide evidence that you possess the skills we are looking for, not something you would necessarily include in a CV. All submitted applications are read in full, so if you invest the time in completing an application, we promise to spend the time reading it. When applying to the graduate programme please ensure that you complete all detail relative to your degree obtained or your application will not be progressed.

• Applications accepted until the end of February 2008 for the graduate programmes - keep in mind that places on the schemes are already being offered and we would encourage you to submit your application as early as possible 
• Apply online – we'll respond via email within four days
• You can book your own assessment centre timings directly online, to suit your schedule  We'll notify you about the results of your assessment centre