HR Apprentice

HR Apprentice

Length: 24 months FTC

Start date: March 2026

Location: London

Course: Level 5 CIPD

Your Team: HR is a highly motivated and hardworking team that puts people at the core of everything we do; aligning business decisions to people programmes. We are committed to finding and developing the best talent and are constantly looking for opportunities to innovate.

Your Role: The apprenticeship is 2 years and you will gain a broad range of experience across HR. You will primarily be working with the Business Partnering HR team, but will also have exposure to HR Operations, Talent Acquisition (TA) and Learning & Development (L&D). You will work towards a HR qualification. You will be responsible for supporting the HR Business Partners, HR Directors and managers across the business to ensure a great employee experience. The programme is designed to provide you with the skills and knowledge required to pursue a career in HR. At the end of the 2 year program you’ll complete your apprenticeship at News UK with a Level 5 CIPD Qualification.

Being an apprentice at News UK: During your time with us you will earn above living wage, get full training, study towards your Level 5 CIPD qualification (with your course fees paid). You will also receive mentoring/coaching from the industry’s best, as well as any other equity you might need to fulfil your full potential.

Day to day you will:

• You will assist in the operations of the HR department including:
• Provide support to the HR Business Partners with all new and change of role sign off processes.
• Support with changes to promotions and contract changes in a timely manner ensuring a high level of accuracy.
• Support the HRBPs with day to day tasks, including responding to colleague queries and concerns and implementing HR policies and procedures.
• Assist in the preparation of HR documents, such as employment contracts and letters.
• Process leavers and ensure all actions associated with this are completed in an appropriate time frame.
• Liaise closely with our People Operations team.
• Act as note taker for employee relation processes.
• Support with sickness absence management.
• Chase completion of overdue compliance training.
• Support with ad-hoc project work.

What we’re looking for from you:

• You have excellent administration and organisational skills.
• Good problem solving skills and understanding of how to approach challenging situations in a constructive manner.
• A desire to learn and develop knowledge across a broad range of HR principles.
• Strong time management.
• Curious nature.
• Excellent communication skills that can be adapted.

If you think you have what it takes but don’t tick every requirement on the list, please do apply. We recognise that considering someone’s potential as well as their experience is a great way to hire. We want to hear from people who have a passion to learn and develop.

Application Process

Online Application > Google Meet Interview > Assessment Centre

As part of the Online Application process, we would like you to provide answers to our application questions that explains why you want to join News UK. Please answer the following 3 questions, this is how we initially review your application.

• Briefly introduce yourself and tell us why you’re interested in pursuing a career within the apprenticeship you’ve applied to?
• Describe a time when you have had to implement a new process or way of working. What did you do and what was the outcome?
• Describe a learning curve you recently navigated. Outline the steps you took, the challenges you faced and what the outcome was.

Please note assessment centres will be taking place in early March 2026.

News UK is one of the leading media businesses in the UK and Ireland. Our newsbrands include The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sun, The Sun on Sunday and The TLS. Our national broadcast brands include talkSPORT, Times Radio and Virgin Radio UK, and we have market-leading local stations across Ireland. Our world-famous brands provide news, analysis, opinion and entertainment to almost 40 million people each month. Spanning print and pixel, audio and video, events and experiences, our multi-format brands are home to a plurality of opinion, representing the diverse communities we serve. Driven by passion, guided by principles and acting with purpose, we exist to promote a fair society, freedom of speech and a little bit of fun. Rethinking continually the business of storytelling, we represent, reflect and reach the nation, telling the stories that matter.

Life at News Driven by passion, guided by principles and acting with purpose. We represent, reflect and reach the nation, telling the stories that matter. We inform our audiences so that they can make decisions based on trusted information. We represent, reflect and reach the nation, telling the stories that matter most. To ensure these stories resonate with as broad an audience as possible, it is essential that our organisation reflects the diversity of the people we reach. Whether through age, gender, ethnicity, disability, social class or sexuality, we are committed to representing the rich variety of voices that make up our society. And we champion a culture where everyone has the opportunity to contribute and thrive as we continue to innovate and drive long term sustainable growth. This is done through our Diversity Strategy.

At News UK, we take pride in our exceptional employee-led networks that bring together individuals with shared interests and create a vibrant sense of community. We believe our networks play a vital role in fostering a collaborative and supportive work culture at News UK. Groups that we support include the African & Caribbean Network, Parents and Carers, and LGBTQ+ group News Is Out, and Next Gen.

Benefits

Some of our benefits include:

• Private medical insurance including coverage for pre-existing conditions
• Discounted gym memberships, free ClassPass at Home, weekly in person/ virtual exercise classes
• ‘Bikes for Work’ and ‘Electric Car’ scheme
• Up to 60% discount on Harper Collins books
• Maternity leave up to 18 weeks full basic salary & paternity leave up to 2 weeks
• Access to exclusive events and competitions with exciting brands such as talkSPORT, Virgin Radio UK & The Times.
• Weekly virtual panel chats with top journalists and celebrities
• Access to wellbeing benefits such as EAP, physio/massage and counselling
• A generous pension scheme with employer contributions of up to 5%
• Wide range of training available, plus full LinkedIn Learning access
• 25 days holiday, plus bank holidays and up to 4 volunteering days per year

We want to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to perform to their best when applying for a role. If you would like to receive any information in a different way or for us to do anything differently to support you to apply for any of our roles please contact us on careers@news.co.uk.