Food and drink maintenance engineer apprenticeship

We are looking for an enthusiastic apprentice to join our Engineering team and build practical skills in a busy manufacturing environment. You will work alongside experienced engineers, learning how to maintain plant machinery and site services, safely and efficiently.

Are you practical, eager to learn, and interested in how machinery and production equipment work? We are looking for a motivated Food and Drink Maintenance apprentice to join our team and develop the skills required for a successful career in engineering. This is an excellent opportunity to gain hands-on experience while working alongside experienced engineers in a fast-paced manufacturing environment.

You will support in maintaining plant machinery and site services, helping to ensure equipment operates safely, efficiently, and reliably. You'll receive training in preventative maintenance, fault finding, continuous improvement, and engineering best practices.

What You'll Be Doing

• Assisting with planned preventative maintenance on machinery and equipment
• Supporting engineers with reactive and corrective maintenance tasks
• Learning fault-finding techniques to diagnose equipment issues
• Helping to minimise downtime and improve production performance
• Ensuring maintenance activities are accurately recorded and documented
• Supporting machinery start-up and operational checks
• Assisting with plant shutdown and maintenance activities
• Communicating effectively with Production and Engineering teams
• Contributing ideas for equipment and process improvements

Apprenticeships include time away from working for specialist training. You’ll study to gain professional knowledge and skills.

Course contents

• Read and interpret task related information and data. For example, work instructions, SOPs, quality control documentation, Service Level Agreements, specifications, engineering representations, drawings, and graphical information, work instructions, and operation manuals.
• Plan work. Identify and organise resources to complete tasks.
• Identify hazards and control measures to mitigate risks.
• Comply with food safety regulations and procedures.
• Comply with health and safety regulations and procedures.
• Comply with environment and sustainability regulations and procedures: safe disposal of waste, re-cycling or re-use of materials and efficient use of resources.
• Select, check the condition, and safely use maintenance tools and equipment. Store tools and equipment. Complete or arrange maintenance of tools and equipment including calibration where required.
• Follow standard operating procedures and quality procedures.
• Follow site isolation and lock off procedures (lockout, tagout) and re-instatement of equipment with system checks and handover.
• Apply mechanical and fluid power system maintenance practices and techniques. For example, check levels, parts wear, pressure, and sensors, grease and lubricate parts, replace, fit components, and calibrate equipment.
• Apply electrical and control maintenance practices and techniques including use of electrical testing equipment and instruments. For example, panel risk assessment, fixed wire installation testing, fault finding, thermographic surveys, and checking protection settings.
• Apply reliability engineering techniques to prevent or reduce the likelihood or frequency of failures. For example, condition monitoring, oil sampling, thermography, vibration analysis, and ultrasound.
• Install and configure instrumentation or process control systems.
• Install and configure electrical systems. For example, add distribution boards to circuits, single and three phase motors (AC and DC).
• Assemble, position and fix equipment or components. Complete commissioning checks.
• Disconnect and remove equipment or components. Complete storage measures to prevent deterioration.
• Read and interpret equipment performance data.
• Fabricate, drill, and join to produce basic parts, spares or components to measurement and tolerance specification.
• Apply down-hand (flat) TIG welding techniques: butt and tee.
• Apply mathematical techniques to solve engineering problems.
• Produce and amend electrical and mechanical engineering representations, drawings, and graphical information. For example, for new component parts or change in circuit diagram or panel.
• Apply fault-finding and problem-solving techniques for example, using PLC data to diagnose issues and locate faults on industrial network.
• Apply continuous improvement techniques to understand current performance; collect and record data. Devise suggestions for improvement.
• Restore the work area on completion of activity.
• Resolve or escalate issues.
• Use information technology. For example, for document creation, communication, and information management. Comply with GDPR. Comply with cyber security.
• Record work activity. For example, asset management records, work sheets, checklists, waste environmental records, and any business or legal reporting requirements.
• Communicate verbal and written. For example, with colleagues and stakeholders. Use engineering terminology where appropriate.
• Produce reports for example, equipment performance reports.
• Provide guidance or training to colleagues or stakeholders.