Graphic Design Graduate Scheme

Start Date - September 2026, typically for 24 months.

Starting Salary - Circa £31,500.

Minimum Entry Criteria: You need to be near to, or have completed within the last 2 years, an appropriate Bachelor’s or Master’s degree and must be on track to achieve a 2:1 or higher. Unfortunately, JCB is unable to offer visa sponsorship or immigration support for its Early Careers Schemes, either now or in the future. This includes individuals currently on sponsored visas.

This will be suited to you if…

• You’re creative, curious, and eager to develop your design skills in a real working environment.
• You enjoy problem solving, have a good eye for detail, and feel confident experimenting with visual ideas.
• You’re proactive, willing to learn from others, and excited by the opportunity to grow your abilities through hands-on experience and structured training.

What does the Graphic Design Graduate Scheme involve day to day?

In this role, you will support the creation of visual content across a variety of platforms, including social media, websites, presentations, and broader marketing campaigns. You’ll contribute to developing materials that are engaging, visually coherent, and aligned with project goals.

You will also assist with key design principles such as layout, typography, colour selection, and maintaining overall branding consistency. This includes ensuring that every piece of content reflects the organisation’s visual identity and communicates effectively.

A core part of the role involves editing and retouching images using Adobe Creative Suite tools, preparing artwork for both print and digital distribution, and ensuring that all files meet the technical requirements for their intended use.

Collaboration is an important element, and you’ll take part in brainstorming creative concepts with the wider team, sharing ideas and helping bring campaigns to life. At the same time, you’ll manage multiple design tasks, prioritising effectively to meet deadlines in a fast-paced environment.

What comes next?

We’ll be reviewing applications against the essential criteria then shortlisting and sending out links to our online assessments in February 2026 (we’d recommend you keep a look out for emails at this point as you’ll hear from us either way). Once you’ve fully completed your online assessment, we’ll review it and provide you with an update within a few weeks. Please note, if you’ve not completed your online assessment then we won’t take your application further (we’ll send you a few reminders to make sure you don’t forget). If you’ve been progressed, you’ll be sent an invite to attend one of our in-person Assessment Centres. In-person Assessment Centres will take place from March to April 2026 (we’ll send you all the details you need). Following your Assessment Centre, whether you’ve been successful or not, our promise to you is that you’ll receive a call with feedback. If successful, congratulations! We’ll now take you through the onboarding process, which will include a familiarisation day. Welcome to JCB – our Early Careers cohorts ordinarily start in early September.

What’s in it for you?

This is your chance to join a company that’s not only picking up awards for its Early Careers schemes but also opens up opportunities for the long term. On a JCB Early Careers Scheme you’ll join a company that’s known for developing its people, and somewhere that offers a career for life. As standard, you’ll get 33 days’ holiday, and access to our stakeholder pension scheme, you can also opt into our Private Medical scheme with Bupa. Not only that, but you’ll also benefit from access to our onsite gym, in-house doctor and dentist. There’s also a JCB Rewards Hub, which gives you discounts at many high street fashion and food retailers. And if you feel like biking to work? There’s our Cycle to Work Scheme. As part of your scheme, you’ll be involved in a professional outdoor development programme in the Lake District. We also encourage our cohorts to network and get involved in our “NextGen” society.

We value diversity and welcome applications from candidates from all backgrounds. We’re committed to ensuring our recruitment process is fair and inclusive. If you face any accessibility challenges with your online application and require additional support, you have the option of speaking to a member of our Resourcing team who can support you to complete an application in an alternative format. If you would benefit from this support, please email, and a member of the team will be in touch.