Lotus Graduate Scheme

First six months

There were more than 300 applications from across engineering, maths and physics disciplines, and these were the lucky six selected as the newest intake on the Lotus Graduate Scheme.

Each was chosen based on qualifications, industry experience and understanding of Lotus values. They have been rewarded with a two-year full-time contract, working in departments across the Engineering function. Six months in, how are they finding life at Lotus? We sat down with Jacob Kent, 23, and Caolan Carbery, 24, to find out.

“Getting behind the scenes to see how everything works has been a real highlight for me,” said Jacob, originally from Glasgow. “Seeing it all come together on one site, seeing how design translates into engineering then into manufacturing, is great. You can see how something actually appears in a car and ultimately see it being driven off the production line – that’s been amazing.”

Caolan agreed, adding: “Being able to see cars coming together on the production line and walk through each step as they’re built is really valuable. It helps us as engineers to be able speak to people on the manufacturing side to get their input – their instant feedback – and how it can affect their job. You can have that conversation, and I’m not sure you’d get that in a larger-scale operation.”

Part of a graduate’s role at Lotus is to become STEM ambassador, which commits them to supporting local schools in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths subjects. This will support the next generation of engineers but also help each graduate develop their non-technical skills.

Caolan, who’s moved to Norfolk from Belfast, said Lotus will try to accommodate graduate requests to work outside of engineering, for example, in finance or marketing to gain even broader experience. “It’s open and we can influence where we go. I’m in Powertrain at the moment, but I want to move to Vehicle Engineering, and also Testing & Development. Long-term I’d like to be a senior engineer or project lead.

Jacob has similar aspirations. “Given the trajectory of Lotus at the moment, I’d like to be a long-term member of the team and work my way up. The opportunities are going to be incredible. I’m not planning to move anytime soon!”