Employment contract for a graduate trainee

A graduate trainee is employed to be trained, and the contract has to describe a role that changes through rotations, pay that rises on milestones, training the employer funds and would like back if the trainee leaves, and a scheme that ends in a permanent role or in nothing. Training cost repayment clauses are the point most employers get wrong, and the contract has to draft one that a tribunal will not strike down as a penalty. I draft that contract for the employer for a fixed fee of £595, delivered in five working days, as a template for the scheme.

Who this is for

Employers in England and Wales running graduate schemes, trainee programmes or structured entry roles, from a professional practice taking trainees to a company with a two-year rotation scheme.

What matters in a graduate trainee's contract

The programme, rotations and what the trainee is employed to do

The contract should describe the scheme: its length, the rotations or placements and the employer's right to allocate them, the location of each where it varies (which the written particulars under section 1 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 must state or say may vary), the supervision and reviews, and the job title during and after the scheme; a trainee employed to do whatever the business decides has a contract that does not describe a job, and the scheme's structure should be in the contract or in a scheme document the contract incorporates.

Pay, progression and the end of the scheme

The contract should state the starting salary at or above the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 rate, the increases on completing stages or qualifications, benefits, holiday under the Working Time Regulations 1998, pension under the Pensions Act 2008, and what happens at the end of the scheme: a permanent role at a stated grade subject to satisfactory completion, or the end of a fixed-term contract, which is a dismissal under section 95 of the 1996 Act requiring a reason and a process; a scheme that promises a permanent role it does not deliver is a breach, and the contract should say that the offer depends on completion and business need.

Training costs, study leave and repayment clauses that work

The contract should set out the training the employer funds (courses, professional exams, study materials), paid study leave and exam leave, and a repayment clause under which the trainee repays a proportion of the costs if they leave within a stated period after the training, reducing on a sliding scale, limited to the actual cost to the employer, excluding the cost of the trainee's time, and not applying where the employer ends the employment other than for misconduct; a clause that recovers the full cost regardless of timing is a penalty and unenforceable, and the deduction from final pay must be authorised in writing in advance under section 13 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, which the contract provides.

Probation, performance and leaving the scheme

The contract should set a probation period, the assessment criteria for each stage, the consequences of failing an exam or a rotation (a resit, an extended stage, or the end of the scheme), and the process for ending the employment where the trainee does not meet the standard, with notice under section 86 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 as the floor and the fair process that unfair dismissal law requires, which the Employment Rights Act 2025 is extending to the early months of employment on a timetable the regulations set; a trainee removed from a scheme without a documented process is a claim, and the contract should provide the process.

Professional qualifications and the regulator's requirements

Where the scheme leads to a professional qualification (accountancy, law, surveying, engineering), the contract should reflect the regulator's requirements for the training contract or period of recognised training, the supervision, the records and the certification the employer must give, and should say what happens if the employer ceases to be able to provide the training or the trainee fails to qualify; some regulators prescribe terms the training contract must contain, and the contract should incorporate them.

Confidentiality, intellectual property and the rest

The contract should contain confidentiality, intellectual property under section 11 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (trainees in technical schemes create valuable work), the handbook's policies, conduct and the disciplinary and grievance procedures, data protection under the UK GDPR, and restrictive covenants drafted for a junior employee (a non-solicitation of clients the trainee worked with, for a short period, rather than a non-compete), with a garden leave clause where the scheme leads to a client-facing role; a covenant copied from a senior contract into a trainee's is unenforceable and tells a court what the employer thinks of its own drafting.

What it costs

Employment contract, £595. One template you can reuse for a grade of staff. Five working days.

Staff handbook and core policies, £995. Five working days.

Buying online forms the engagement on payment. The scope is what the employment contracts and handbooks page describes, you accept the Terms of Service at checkout, and I email you within four working hours to get started. If you would rather ask something first, email me.

What you get

• A bespoke contract drafted for how you employ people
• Restrictive covenants drafted at a scope a court will uphold
• Confidentiality and intellectual property provisions that put ownership where it belongs
• The statutory particulars, so the document does the job section 1 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 requires it to do
• Flexibility clauses where you genuinely need them, drafted to survive challenge
• Core policies: disciplinary, grievance, sickness absence, equal opportunities, data protection and, increasingly, AI use
• One round of amendments

What is not included

• Acting for employees
• Employment tribunal representation
• Payroll, pensions auto-enrolment and tax
• Immigration and sponsor licence work
• Day to day HR handling, disciplinaries, grievances and redundancy processes

Questions I am often asked

Can we make a trainee repay the full cost of their training if they leave?

Not the full cost regardless of timing, which is a penalty. A sliding-scale repayment of the actual external cost over a stated period, with written authority for the deduction, is enforceable, and the contract drafts it that way.

A trainee failed their professional exams twice. Can we end the contract?

If the contract sets the standard, the consequences of failure and the process, and the process is followed with notice, yes. The contract provides the structure; the process still has to be fair.

Does the scheme have to end in a permanent job?

Only if the contract promises one. The contract makes a permanent role subject to satisfactory completion and business need, and provides for the alternative, which is the end of a fixed term with the process that requires.

Related guidance and services

• Employment contracts and handbooks, £595, the service this page describes
• Consultancy and contractor agreements, £595
• Settlement agreements for employers, £795
• Employment contract for an apprentice
• Employment contract for a fixed-term employee

This page is general guidance for businesses in England and Wales, not advice on your own circumstances. Last reviewed: October 2026. Email geoffrey@caesar.co.uk.