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Manufacturing Design Engineer Apprenticehip
Applications are now open!
Your mission
As a Manufacturing Engineer Degree Apprentice, you’ll learn how designs are turned into safe, accurate and repeatable manufacturing processes. You’ll combine university study with hands-on placements, building the skills to help make products and parts to the right quality and standard.
Working with teams across design, operations, quality, safety and projects, you’ll see how different areas of engineering come together. As your confidence grows, you could help test or improve manufacturing processes, analyse data, solve practical problems, support the development of tools or equipment, and create clear engineering documents.
THE QUALIFICATIONS YOU’LL NEED
Five GCSEs at grade 4/C or above, including Maths, English and a science, technology or engineering-related subject.
A Level grade C or above in both a Maths-based subject and a science, technology, engineering or additional Maths-related subject, or 90+ credits in an Engineering BTEC at Level 3.
You must be a British National and aged 18 or over by 31 August 2027 due to the security requirements of the role.
WORK PATTERN
Your primary place of work will be AWE Aldermaston and/or AWE Burghfield in the Reading area, depending on your apprenticeship pathway, placements and business needs.
Due to the nature of our work and security requirements, you should expect to work on-site during your apprenticeship and in your role afterwards. Being on-site will help you learn directly from experienced specialists, access hands-on support and build connections across the business.
At AWE, we operate on a nine-day fortnight, meaning you get every other Friday off work in addition to 270 hours of annual leave, inclusive of Bank Holidays.
SKILLS TO DEMONSTRATE
• Curiosity about how things are made
• Practical problem-solving
• Care and attention to detail
• Safety and quality awareness
• Clear communication and teamwork
• Organisation and reliability
• Willingness to ask questions and learn from feedback
• Interest in technology and digital tools
Your journey
YYou’ll build your knowledge step by step, learning how manufacturing engineers support precision manufacture, fabrication, joining, assembly, materials processing, tooling, inspection and new production capability.
Manufacturing uses a wide range of digital technology. You may use computer-aided design and manufacturing tools, digital work instructions, engineering systems and data analysis. You’ll learn how these tools help teams work safely, accurately and consistently, and why reliable records matter.
When you successfully complete your apprenticeship, you could move into an engineering team as a Manufacturing Engineer. Your future area will depend on business needs and the skills and interests you develop.
• New product introduction
• Manufacturing system design
• Advanced or digital manufacturing
• Tooling
• Production support or continuous improvement
Think you’ve got what it takes?
You’re curious about how designs, materials, machines, processes and data come together to make something successfully. You enjoy finding out why something does or does not work and like the idea of turning an initial design into a safe, repeatable process.
You’ll enjoy a mix of hands-on learning, digital tools, information and problem-solving. You work carefully, value safety and quality, and are ready to learn on real engineering projects while studying towards a fully funded degree.
Want to find out more?
