Voted For by Apprentices: Thales Named a Top 100 UK Apprenticeship Employer for 2026

Thales UK has been named one of the Top 100 Apprenticeship Employers for 2026. What makes this one worth paying attention to is who decided it: the apprentices themselves.

The Top 100 Apprenticeship Employers list is the only government-backed ranking of its kind, run by the Department for Education in partnership with Higherin. Employers cannot nominate themselves into it, and no panel hands out the places. The rankings are built entirely from reviews written by apprentices about their own experiences. For anyone weighing up where to start their career, that is a rare thing: an honest verdict on the programme from the people living it.

A ranking that has to be earned

To rank, an employer's apprentices have to leave enough independent reviews, and those reviews have to hold up. The list weighs the scale of opportunity on offer, the variety of programmes, how many apprentices actually complete their schemes, how inclusive the intake is, and the average score apprentices give the experience. It also counts the share of apprentices who would recommend their scheme to someone else. A place in the Top 100 signals that a programme delivers on the things that matter once you are through the door, not only the things that look good in a job advert.

The programme behind the badge

Thales in the UK has run its apprenticeship programmes for over a decade, with roles from Level 2 through to Level 6 degree apprenticeships across all sites. Apprentices are permanent employees from day one, earning a full salary while they study. The routes cover engineering, software, cyber security, project planning, procurement and HR, so there are genuinely different ways in depending on where your interest sits. Thales employees 200+ graduates and apprentices every year, which tells you the programme is central to how the company builds its workforce rather than a side project.

Proof already on the profile

The ranking reflects what current and former apprentices have said, and you can read some of those journeys for yourself. The Thales profile carries first-hand accounts from apprentices in software engineering, electro-mechanical engineering and project planning, covering why they chose the apprenticeship route, how the application process works, and where it has taken them since. They are a useful reality check to sit alongside the ranking.

What it means for you

If you are leaving school, weighing an apprenticeship against university, or looking for a route that pays you to learn, a government-backed and apprentice-reviewed Top 100 place is a solid piece of evidence to factor in. It will not do your research for you, but it does tell you that the people who have already walked this path rated it highly enough to put Thales among the best in the country.

Watch the official Top 100 announcement