This apprenticeship for mechatronics maintenance technicians is designed as a three-year programme. It equips you with a complex blend of skills, knowledge and occupational behaviours across the electrical, electronic, mechanical, fluid power and control systems disciplines.
Typically, the duration of this apprenticeship is 36 – 48 months. This may be reduced for a candidate with previous relevant experience or who is already part-qualified.
Individual employers will set the selection criteria for their apprenticeships. In order to optimise success, candidates will typically have four GCSEs at grade C or equivalent, including Mathematics, English (grade 4 or above) and a Science. Employers who recruit candidates without English or Maths at grade C or above must ensure that the candidate achieves this standard prior to the completion of the apprenticeship.
You will study:
Academic and practical learning will include:
You will cover the following units:
There will be two phases of training to ensure that apprentices meet this apprenticeship standard, in line with specified employer requirements.
The foundation phase will be intensive off-the-job training focused on developing the apprentice's core skills, knowledge and behaviour, allowing them to work effectively with supervision in a largely simulated working environment. This stage will typically require 1400 Vocational Guided Learning Hours, building up from basics to more complex engineering operations and practices. The tasks will be aligned to the job role to develop a range of tailored core engineering techniques. By the end of this phase, the apprentice will therefore be able to demonstrate, under independent test conditions, that they can deploy the relevant skills and occupational behaviours.
There will be an employer endorsement as part of the final assessment of this phase to ensure that the apprentice has demonstrated full competence against the knowledge, skills and behaviours in this standard. The employer will sign off that the apprentice is ‘job ready’ as a competent mechatronics technician.
Apprentices will be expected to comply with their company's standard PPE dress code. Any shortfalls in safety equipment will be addressed during the first week of the course.
Completion of this apprenticeship standard will be recognised by the relevant professional institutions as the evidence required for Engineering Technician
registration (EngTech) through a professional review.
For those deemed capable and ready, further career development and progression opportunities could be considered, such as Mechatronic Maintenance Engineering or higher levels of education and training.
Taking an engineering course at Derby College Group marked the beginning of a whole new voyage of discovery for naval engineer Declan Clarke-Hancock.
After leaving Littleover Community School, Declan enrolled on the full-time performing engineering operations level 2 course at The Roundhouse Technical and Professional Skills college.
Now aged 25, he is a third electro-technical officer (ETO) on the cruise ship Sapphire Princess and is seeing the world while doing an engineering job he loves.
Getting to where he is now hasn’t always been plain sailing though. The Derbyshire firm where Declan took a level 3 electrical apprenticeship closed just as he qualified. Unsure of what to do next, he was looking for a local job as an electrician when he spotted a cadetship opportunity with Princess Cruises.
After attending maritime college in Southampton, as well as training for months at sea, Declan then had to pass difficult Maritime and Coastguard Agency exams before taking up his current role.
Declan started as an ETO in May 2019 and is responsible for the 110,000-ton ship’s electrical and electronics, including looking after her 35 elevators, watertight doors and lifeboats.
Declan said: “Going to Derby College definitely gave me the step up I needed. Without that I wouldn’t have got where I am now so I’m very thankful. I’d like to come back to college and talk to engineering students about my experiences. I want to show them where studying engineering at the Roundhouse can lead – and that they don’t necessarily have to stay in Derby or the East Midlands when they qualify. The right qualifications can take them anywhere.”
Declan has already had many memorable travel experiences through his job. Highlights include kayaking and dog sled riding in an Alaskan glacier, watching England play football in the World Cup in St Petersburg and visiting New York.
Going to Derby College definitely gave me the step up I needed.