15 September 2025, London– Hachette UK has opened applications for its 2026 traineeship programme. Expanding the number of placements from ten to fourteen, the publisher has both entry-level positions and career-change placements available across a range of its departments.

Now in its seventh year, the focus for the programme this year will be on securing candidates in Hachette UK’s Sheffield office, as part of its commitment to continue hiring creative talent beyond London and accelerate the diversification of its workforce and publishing.

Hachette UK is partnering for the fourth year with literary agency Curtis Brown and Waterstones, following the success of its 2024 – 2025 cohort, which saw eight of the ten trainees landing roles at Hachette UK. Other traineeship alumni include Tierney Witty, who is now Commissioning Editor at Orion, and Yassine Belkacemi, who first joined the publisher through the traineeship and is now Editorial Director at John Murray Group.

The publisher will continue to work with Creative Access to recruit exceptional talent from underrepresented groups, with all applications for the traineeship being made via the Creative Access website.

The traineeship is designed to make publishing more accessible to underrepresented groups, as part of Hachette UK’s industry-leading vision for diversity and inclusion, Changing the Story. It is actively seeking applications from candidates from Black, Asian, and Ethnically Diverse backgrounds and applicants from lower socio-economic backgrounds, to improve representation of these groups in Hachette UK’s workforce.

The trainees will spend the year within one of Hachette UK’s editorial, communications, marketing and publicity, rights, sales or consumer insight teams. Those specialising in editorial will have a placement at Curtis Brown to learn how to represent authors and matchmake them with publishers. The trainees will also spend a month at Waterstones to learn the art of bookselling and understand consumer buying behaviour. Hachette UK also delivers a bespoke learning and development programme, which provides the opportunity to learn about the journey of publishing a book from pitch to production.

Lisa Waterman, Group HR Director at Hachette UK, commented: “Our traineeship is one of our flagship Changing the Story initiatives at Hachette UK, and it’s always such a pleasure to see how our trainees flourish over the course of the programme. With more and more of our staff being recruited into our national offices, it felt like a natural progression to give the traineeship a Sheffield focus this year. It forms part of our commitment to growth and development in our hubs outside of London, and hiring and nurturing local talent remains hugely important to the business, together with focusing on those wishing to change career. We always want to build on the success of our traineeship to make it easier for the next generation of talent to join the publishing industry, and I can’t wait to welcome our next cohort.”

Mel Rodrigues, CEO at Creative Access, commented: “Creative Access is delighted to be partnering with Hachette UK to deliver these 14 new traineeship placements. We’re passionate about breaking down barriers to creative careers, and so we’re particularly excited to be supporting Hachette UK in its mission to this year connect with career changers, and to create more opportunities in key bases like Sheffield.

It’s been incredible to see how trainees from previous years have progressed and grown their careers across the Hachette UK publishing divisions and across the UK. We can’t wait to get started connecting in the next cohort of fledgling publishing talent.”

Alex Orr, former Publishing Trainee and Marketing Assistant at John Murray Press, commented: “I joined Hachette UK in the Edinburgh office, which meant that not only did I get to work with my amazing team based in London and Sheffield, but I also got to work in my office alongside colleagues in lots of divisions and positions from across the whole business. Working in a national office gives you another group of brilliant colleagues to connect with outside of your day-to-day working life. The traineeship returning with a focus on hiring in the Sheffield office is a wonderful opportunity for non-London based publishing hopefuls to make that step into the industry without having to relocate to London. Welcoming four more trainees than my cohort is another exciting development, and I cannot wait to meet them. I’m wishing all applicants the best of luck!”

All applications can be made by following the links here. Applications close 13 October 2025.