Industrial Placement - Manufacturing Paintshop

Salary: £24,327

Duration: 12 month contract                                                                                                  

Start Date: 17th August 2026
Location: Based in Crewe, Cheshire, CW1 3PL.

Work Arrangement: Onsite                                                                        

Entry Requirements: See ‘What we’re looking for’ section

Our Industrial Placement Programme:

As part of Bentley’s annual Early Careers intake, you’ll join a community of around 250 trainees including Industrial Placements, Graduates, and Apprentices.

During your placement, you’ll be based at our Bentley Campus "Dream Factory". Click here to visit our virtual tour. Alongside hands-on work experience, you’ll also benefit from:

• CSR and outreach activities
• Opportunities to participate in charity events, community projects, and social committees
• Masterclasses, development workshops, and social events
• Inclusivity networks and peer support groups
• Placements and rotations across different areas of the business that interest you

About the role:

As an Industrial Placement Student at Bentley, you will play a key part in Bentley’s journey to extraordinary vehicles for our customers. Based out of our state-of-the-art headquarters in Crewe, you will:

• Gain invaluable experience working in an industry leading manufacturing plant and develop a deep understanding of cutting-edge technology,
• Play a key role in driving our Beyond100 Strategy,
• Work alongside and be mentored by Industry Leading experts,
• Have the opportunity to pitch your own ideas bring them to fruition.

Your main responsibilities include:

• Leading projects on real and live business challenges to drive quality and achieve volume targets,
• Analysing day to day problems, determining the root cause and implementing robust solutions,
• Coordinating cross-functionally with external departments to deliver clearly defined targets,
• Working in collaboration with the technical support and production teams to achieve efficiency improvements,
• Contributing to innovation projects to bring new ideas into our manufacturing processes to improve quality and working towards sustainability targets.

About the Department:

The Bentley Paint Shop is a production department within the company’s luxury performance manufacturing plant in Crewe. The Paint Shop strives to deliver optimum quality and achieve our class leading Bentley finish with our vast colour ranges.

You will be working with Industry experts in our technical teams to gain an understanding of lean manufacturing, process development, innovations, environmental aspects and our sustainability strategy.

The successful candidate will be hands on with a strong technical and analytical background. We are looking for those with problem solving abilities, communication skills, attention to detail and a basic understanding of a manufacturing process.

You will be in the midst of our daily operations developing on skills such as communication, team working, planning and reporting. The Paint Shop is a complex manufacturing environment where you will be immersed into a world of materials, machinery and production management.

What we are looking for:

The successful candidates will be on track to achieve a 2:1 in the following degrees: Engineering or in a related subject such as Environmental, Manufacturing, Automotive, Chemistry and Industrial subjects are preferable.

Skills required for the role:

• Have previous experience in the automotive industry or manufacturing,
• Have a good knowledge of computing & IT systems,
• Be familiar with data analysis in order to generate reports,
• Good time management,
• Good communication skills.

What we offer:

As an Industrial Placement you will have access to the following benefits:

• A starting salary of £24,327
• Support from our Early Careers team and 121 manager mentorship
• 35 days’ holiday inclusive of bank holidays
• 10% pension contribution with life assurance benefits
• Learning and development opportunities

Right To Work:

To be eligible for an Early Careers programme you must have a legal right to work in the UK for the duration of the placement or graduate scheme. We welcome students who have Settled Status, a Tier 4 Visa, or a Graduate Visa. We are unable to offer sponsorship for our Early Careers positions

#BelongingAtBentley
Motivated to be the most diverse, inclusive luxury car company, we are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where all individuals are respected, valued, and empowered. 

We firmly believe in equal opportunities for all, helping all colleagues thrive as their authentic selves and reach their highest potential. We believe that everyone, regardless of their background or beliefs, belongs at Bentley. Everyone is entitled to respect and dignity and we positively celebrate the differences between people.

Working at Bentley

To learn more about what life is like working at Bentley, and our assessment process view our Candidate Pack here.

Closing date: 14th November 2025.

We aim to progress to online assessments in December and offer by the end of the month.

Click here to view our FAQs.