The Co-operative Bank

The Co-operative Bank 2025 graduate opportunities

Company Company profile

At the Co-operative Bank, we've always been driven by something different: an ethical approach to banking. It’s why we were the first UK high street bank to introduce a customer-led Ethical Policy – a policy that’s been shaped by over 320,000 customer responses since it was launched in 1992. It’s why our values and ethics underpin everything we do. It’s part of what makes us different.

Here at The Co-operative Bank we're committed to doing the right thing and building the digital, ethical bank of the future. As one of our graduates you’ll be at the heart of it all.

If you share our values and have the talent and initiative to drive forward our business, we may have a great opportunity for you. On our Banking Leadership programme, you’ll learn at pace and gain exposure to senior leaders and a variety of projects and teams across our business, giving you everything you need to be a future leader at our Bank; all whilst working towards a professional qualification.

On our Banking Leadership programme, you’ll develop key leadership skills and competencies and gain knowledge and experience through a series of placements across our business. We want our future leaders to have a broad understanding of our Bank and we’ve designed our programme to offer exactly that. You’ll spend time within our customer operations, product areas and support functions including Finance, Audit, HR, IT or Risk. You’ll even discover teams you didn’t know existed.



Case studies

  • Name: Sophie McHale
  • Role: Banking Leadership Graduate
  • Joined: September 2019
  • University: University of Manchester
  • Degree: Politics, Philosophy and Economics

Description:

My name is Sophie McHale and I graduated in 2017. I then worked in a number of different businesses within the financial services industry before applying to The Co-operative Bank.

I chose to apply to The Co-operative Bank because I was eager to work for an employer which celebrated and encouraged diversity, created a comfortable and empowering workplace culture and stood by its ethics in every part of its work. The Bank offers so much to the local community, local and international charities and to its customers and is unique in pioneering its customer-led ethical policy. The Banking Leadership programme itself offers so much flexibility and allows me to have a say in what I learn and gain experience in what I am interested in.

My experience so far at the Co-operative Bank has been extremely positive. All colleagues have been so welcoming towards the new graduates and I have thoroughly enjoyed listening to presentations and visiting the many different areas of the Bank. Having exposure to senior leaders at such an early stage in my career is invaluable and something that you would not get on any other graduate programme. I am looking forward to discovering and working with different areas of the bank in the future and shaping the rest of my career at the Co-operative Bank. “

Application procedure

There's much more to our graduate programmes than on-the-job experience. We'll give you all of the tools and support we can to drive your career and develop you as a person. We'll also assign you a mentor and work with you on a personal development plan to draw together every aspect of your learning.

Application process: We've designed our process so we can get to know each other better along the way. You'll be able to show us what you can do and you'll get a real insight into what it's like to work here. We'll ask you to participate in our assessment process:

- Online application and screening
- Online aptitude and behavioural tests
- A video assessment
- Attend our Discovery Centre

Please apply to the latest Co-operative Bank jobs on graduate-jobs.com

To find out more about The Co-Operative Bank, click here to be redirected to their careers page.

FAQs

As a Co-operative Bank graduate you’ll enjoy:

  • A two year scheme working on key assignments whilst working towards a professional qualification
    • £27,500 starting salary plus performance-based salary reviews
    • Our Manchester City Centre HQ – a recently refurbished building right opposite Victoria Train Station
    • 27 days leave + bank holidays + the opportunity to buy more
    • Two paid volunteer days a year
    • Flexible working
    • Up to 10% pension contribution
    • Retail and gym discounts
    • Exposure to Senior Leaders from across the organisation
    • The opportunity to network with other graduates and peers on strategic bank-wide projects.
    • Encouragement to attend internal and external networking groups
    • The opportunity to make a real difference