12-month Planning Internship with Active Travel England

Job summary

Are you in your final two years at university, studying for a degree in an active travel design related discipline?

Do you have a curious personality?

Looking for a placement during your degree?

Active Travel England is enabling people nationwide to be more active by making streets safe and accessible for walking, wheeling and cycling. We do this by building capability across the country to deliver high-quality networks, routes and places. We engage, we enable, we assure and we advocate to make active travel a core part of transport planning.

At the heart of everything we do is raising standards in street design, to ensure our country’s streets become safer and more accessible.

Active Travel England’s Planning and Placemaking Strategy Team is looking for a highly motivated intern with an interest in creating healthy, attractive and inclusive places.

Find out more about what it's like working at Active Travel England - Department for Transport Careers

Job description

The Planning and Placemaking Strategy Team undertakes the following work:

• Influencing planning policy to advance Active Travel England’s objectives
• Producing and influencing guidance documents, tools and resources that will raise capability and knowledge in the sector
• Building and maintaining strong relationships with key stakeholders across the public and private sector
• Identifying and developing new opportunities and roles for the Directorate
• Identifying and delivering on priority areas of research and training.

ATE internship opportunity

You will be provided with a structured programme but will also have the opportunity to identify areas of interest to you.

You will be supported throughout your internship and will be provided with consistent opportunities to learn new skills, attend training, meet new people and visit interesting development sites.

Your internship will help you to build your confidence in a professional environment, learning how to prioritise workloads, present findings to colleagues and enhance your analysis, communication and report-writing skills.

Open Sessions:

Would you like to find out more about the role, the team and what it’s like to work in our department? If so, we are organising an open session where you can virtually 'meet the team' on 03/03/2026 at 17:00. Sign up here https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/cb500ea1-8da6-4ee4-8096-e53db4824ceb@28b782fb-41e1-48ea-bfc3-ad7558ce7136

Person specification

We are looking for someone:

1. In your last two years of university, studying for a degree in a planning-related degree (e.g. town planning, urban design, transport planning, geography - see attached course list).

2. Effective communication and interpersonal skills.

3. Good organisational skills and good attention to detail.

4. Hard working and motivated.

5. Open to taking on new roles/tasks and delivering quality results to set deadlines.

Working hours, office attendance and travel requirements

Full time roles consist of 37 hours per week.

This role is suitable for hybrid working, which is a non-contractual arrangement where a combination of workplace and home-based working can be accommodated subject to business requirements.

The expectation at present is a minimum of 60% of your working time a month will be spent at either your designated workplace (one of the locations cited in the advert) or, when required for business reasons, in another office/work location/visiting stakeholders. Your designated workplace will be your contractual place of work. There may be occasions where you are required to attend above the minimum expectation.

Visa Sponsorship

Please note that we do not hold a UK Visa & Immigration (UKVI) Skilled Worker Licence sponsor and are unable to sponsor any individuals for Skilled Worker Sponsorship. Candidates must ensure they have the appropriate rights to work in the UK before application.

Qualifications

To be eligible to apply for one of our placements you must be in the last two years of university, studying for a degree in a planning-related degree (e.g. town planning, urban design, transport planning, geography). Please see attached document which lists accepted degree/courses.
You will be required to provide evidence that you hold any essential qualifications/licenses at some point during the recruitment process. If you cannot provide evidence, your application will be withdrawn.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Working Together
• Developing Self and Others

We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

• Working Together

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £24,548, Active Travel England contributes £7,111 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths and Experience.

How to apply:

Our selection process ensures a comprehensive assessment of each applicant's qualifications, skills, and potential fit within our organisation.

The selection process for this role will be:

Stage 1: Sift of CV and personal statement

Stage 2: Interview

You must be successful at each stage to progress to the next stage.

Stage 1: Sift

1. A written behavioural example in 250 words that provides evidence of you having demonstrated the following:

• Working Together - Please provide an example of where you have collaborated with colleagues to achieve a desired outcome.

1. A tailored CV that demonstrates suitability to the role and the essential criteria.
2. Personal statement in 750 words providing detailed experience of the following:

• How this opportunity aligns to your studies and what you hope to gain from it;
• Your experience of carrying out research and gathering data; and
• Your experience of proactively contributing to the work of the whole team, while remaining open to taking on new roles/tasks and delivering quality results to the deadline.

The sift will take place week commencing 09/03/2026

Stage 2: Interview

At interview stage, you will be assessed against the following Success Profile elements:

• Behaviours – Developing Self and others
• Strengths

The interviews will take place week commencing 13/04/2026

This interview will be conducted online via Microsoft Teams. Further details will be provided to you should you be selected for interview.

You can find out more about our hiring process, how to apply, and application and interview guidance on our careers site (opens in a new window).

Please note that we will try to meet the dates set out in the advert. There may be occasions when these dates will change

Reasonable Adjustments

As a Disability Confident Leader employer, we are committed to ensuring that the recruitment process is fair, accessible and allows all candidates to perform at their best. If a person with a visible or non-visible disability is substantially disadvantaged, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need during the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at an interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

If you need a reasonable adjustment so that you can complete your application, you should contact Government Recruitment Service via dftrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Document Accessibility

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

This job advert contains links to the DfT Careers website. Our website provides useful guidance and information that can support you during the application process. If you cannot access the information on our website for any reason, please email DRGComms@dft.gov.uk for assistance.

Further Information

For more information about how we hire, and for useful tips on submitting your application for this role, visit theHow We Hire page of our DfT Careers website. You can find detailed information about the recruitment process and what to expect when applying for a role.

Pre-employment Checking

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5-year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

All External applicants and current employees of accredited non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) will be required to undergo a Social Media Check. A Social Media Check is a review of your publicly available online activity, typically across platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and others. The purpose is to identify any public posts or content that could raise concerns for employers, such as:

Hate speech or discriminatory behaviour

Threats or acts of violence

Illegal activity or substance misuse

Sexually explicit material

Extremist views or affiliations

Importantly, this check does not involve hacking into your accounts or accessing private messages. It only considers content you have chosen to make public.

Employers use this kind of screening to help ensure their workplace remains safe, inclusive, and aligned with company values. It’s not about judging your personality or lifestyle—it’s about checking for potential red flags that might affect the role or company culture.

If you have questions or concerns about the social media check, we would be happy to explain in more detail what’s being looked at and how your data is handled securely and fairly.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : ATE HR
• Email : ATE_HR@activetravelengland.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : DFTrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Further information

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance, you should contact Government Recruitment Services via email: dftrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission: Visit the Civil Service Commission website Here

Attachments

Role Profile Opens in new window (docx, 96kB)Planning Course List Opens in new window (docx, 149kB)