Costain doubles 2026 apprentice intake: delivery and skills risks for UK projects
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on New Civil Engineer
30 Second Briefing
Costain will recruit 50 apprentices in 2026, doubling last year’s intake, to resource a growing pipeline of long‑term infrastructure contracts in transport, water and energy. The expanded programme targets site engineers, civil technicians and project controls roles to support complex frameworks such as multi‑year highways upgrades and regulated water asset renewals. For contractors and consultants, this signals intensifying competition for early‑career talent on major UK infrastructure, with more delivery risk tied to in‑house training capacity and retention.
Technical Brief
- Doubling year-on-year suggests Costain is planning labour for multi‑year frameworks rather than single‑project peaks.
- Expanded early‑career cohort enables more in‑house setting‑out, QA and site supervision capacity versus subcontract reliance.
- Additional project controls apprentices point to heavier internal resourcing of cost, risk and programme management functions.
- Higher apprentice numbers allow structured rotation across highways, water and energy portfolios to balance workload.
- For geotechnical and civils delivery, this supports building internal competence in earthworks, temporary works and asset inspections.
- Workforce planning on long‑duration infrastructure contracts becomes increasingly coupled to training throughput and retention assumptions.
Our Take
In our database, Costain’s recent wins with Thames Water (c.£150M upgrades) and a £200M framework extension with United Utilities signal a deepening water-sector workload that will demand exactly the kind of process and civils skills typically targeted by apprenticeships.
First-half 2026 results showing a growing forward order book and stable 3.2% margins suggest Costain is using the expanded 2026 apprentice intake as a capacity hedge to deliver committed work rather than a speculative hiring push.
Costain’s role on technically complex schemes such as HS2’s ‘green’ tunnel and the Strategic Pipeline Alliance trials for diesel-free plant implies that new apprentices are likely to be exposed early to low-carbon construction methods and large-scale temporary works, which is not yet standard across many UK contractors in our coverage.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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