This advanced apprenticeship for welding is designed as a three-year programme. It equips you with a complex blend of skills, knowledge and occupational behaviours to produce good quality welds in pipe and/or plate using three welding process/material type combinations (TIG, PAW, MMA, MIG/MAG, FCAW) and (Carbon and Low Alloy Steel, High Alloy Ferritic/Martensitic Steel, Austenitic Stainless Steel, Nickel and Nickel Alloys, Aluminium and Aluminium Alloys) covering all welding positions (Downhand, Horizontal, Vertical, Overhead, Inclined).
Typically, the duration of this apprenticeship is 38 months. This duration may be reduced for a candidate with previous relevant experience or who is already part-qualified.
Practical skills are considered as important as academic ability and the employer will set their own specific selection criteria. However, the candidate will be required to achieve qualifications at Level 2 in English and Mathematics within the period of apprenticeship if they have not already achieved these.
Practical training will train you to:
Academic training will equip you to:
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 1,400 Vocational Guided Learning Hours, building up from the 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 apprenticeship standard. The employer will sign off that the apprentice is ‘job ready’ as a competent 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.
There are numerous pathways for Multi-Positional Welders who may wish to pursue higher level careers in welding. These include progression to High Integrity Welding, Welding Instruction and Teaching, Welding Inspection and Managing and Supervising Welding Operations.
At the age of 16, Grace Draper decided to apply for an apprenticeship at Rolls-Royce rather than go on to do A-levels. She’s not looked back since.
She has excelled while gaining on-the-job experience with the company and during her training at Derby College, where she has achieved Distinction standards. Now she is set to take her qualifications further with a foundation degree at the College, sponsored by Rolls-Royce.
Such has been Grace’s success that she was highly commended in the Manufacturing and Engineering Apprenticeship category of our 2014 Peak Awards. Judges described her as a ‘model learner’ and praised her collaborative work on projects, where she demonstrated the team skills and personal attributes which are vital in today’s engineering industry.
An apprenticeship at Rolls- Royce is the best of both worlds. We get to work in all sorts of areas of the company, earning while we’re learning. Having completed my first two years of the apprenticeship, I’m looking forward to starting the foundation degree.