International communications and sales trainee

Closing date for applications: 26 October 2025

Salary: £25,500 per annum - plus financial travel support

Are you passionate about books and social media? This six-month traineeship is a unique opportunity to gain hands-on experience in marketing strategy and influencer outreach while working on international campaigns.

The Scheme is for voices we want to hear more of in publishing. Could yours be one of them?

Make your mark by spending six months between January – July 2026 working with the best at the number one publisher in the UK. You’ll immerse yourself within one of our key business areas, learning the ropes, taking ownership of projects and contributing to our mission to make books for everyone. Whatever team you’re placed with, you’ll gain universally applicable skills that will equip you for wherever you go next. We’ll teach you about all publishing and Penguin, and support you to make the next steps in your career journey.

The scheme is for people from lower socio-economic backgrounds. If you meet this eligibility criteria but perhaps you’re changing careers, don’t have a degree, or haven’t often seen yourself reflected in publishing, we’d love you to apply! Whatever your gender, background, or community, we want to hear your story. All trainees are paid £25,500 per annum (equivalent to £12,750 for the six months of the traineeship). We also offer a travel bursary for those commuting from outside of London. For further information and the full role descriptions, please see our website.


International communications and sales trainee

Our sales team help to bring our books to as many people as possible. Our international communications team, part of the wider international sales department, is a friendly, dynamic, and collaborative group of five. We specialise in crafting marketing and publicity strategies, engagement initiatives, and global campaigns to get Penguin books into the hands of readers across the world. We work closely with colleagues from various sectors of the business, including our international sales managers, divisional marketing and publicity teams, and the Penguin brand team. Some of our exciting campaigns feature renowned writers such as Emily Henry, Dan Brown, Haruki Murakami, Monica Murphy, Taylor Jenkins Reid, and many more.

As a trainee working in international communications in the sales team, you’ll be working with a focus on our European market. You'll have the opportunity to contribute to the development of our B2B and influencer marketing strategies. You will have the chance to work on our international sales social media channels and newsletters. You would support this work by researching and expanding upon our audience of influencers who we can work with to promote Penguin’s titles internationally. You would also support with reporting on the outcomes of this influencer outreach. You will help set up regular virtual events to further engage with influencers and booksellers in international territories.

Knowledge and skills you’ll gain: an insight into publishing and international sales; an understanding of how campaigns are adapted to an international audience; an awareness of market trends and sales patterns; organisational skills; time management skills; relationship building; social media content creation; influencer engagement.

If you have an interest in social media and book influencers and strong communication skills, this could be the role for you.


Eligibility criteria

You’ll need to have a pre-existing right to work in the UK for the duration of the traineeship as unfortunately we are not able to offer visa sponsorship. You don’t need a degree, you just need to be over 18. To achieve our mission to make books for everyone because a book can change anyone, we are seeking out new voices. To apply, you’ll need to identify as from a lower socio-economic background. We use parental occupation at age 14 to measure this as the Social Mobility Commission suggests it to be the most accurate measure available to assess socio-economic background, as well as being accessible to those from all nationalities.

To apply for the scheme, at age 14 your highest-earning parent/guardian was not in management and was employed in one of the following categories: 

• technical and craft occupations such as motor mechanic, plumber, printer, electrician, gardener, train driver
• routine, semi-routine manual and service occupations such as postal worker, machine operative, security guard, caretaker, farm worker, catering assistant, sales assistant, HGV driver, cleaner, porter, packer, labourer, waiter or waitress, bar staff
• unemployed (claimed Jobseeker’s Allowance or earlier unemployment benefit for more than a year)

We recognise these are broad categories that may not fully reflect the many hundreds of jobs out there, or exactly fit your family situation. Please use your judgement when self-identifying.

Please state in your application that you found this role through Creative Access.