The first year of a Rutherford Appleton Laboratory apprenticeship is currently spent at Oxford and Cherwell College| where you will be taught the basics of machining, welding, electronics and electrical wiring. One day a week you will spend doing your academic study, typically an electrical, electronic or mechanical national certificate. From the ONC apprentices can go on to do an HNC at Abingdon and Witney college or even go to Newbury College| to complete a HND.
There are a number of qualifications that you can achieve during an Advanced Apprenticeship. These include:
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BTEC National Certificate in your chosen discipline
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NVQ2 Performing Engineering Operations
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Level 2 Key Skills
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NVQ3 Engineering Production
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SEMTA Certificate of Verified Achievement
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BTEC Higher National Certificate
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SEMTA Advanced Apprenticeship Certificate
Other qualifications are also available. These include a Higher National Diploma and IEE16th Edition Wiring Regulations. You will also be fully trained on site in, among other things, health and safety, abrasive wheel regulations and basic fire fighting.
The on-the-job training provided in years 2 through to 4 involves work within various workshops on-site, associated with your chosen discipline.
Electronics apprentices will have the opportunity to learn about high speed, innovative, state of the art high speed electronics, from single integrated circuits to huge data acquisition systems. When fully assembled these systems are used in scientific research all over the world.
Electrical apprentices are given the opportunity to work within a varied spectrum of electrical jobs. This can involve work as varied as installing large, high voltage conductor cables to work as small as soldering delicate components under a microscope.
Mechanical apprentices also cover a wide range of work including work in the Space Science and Technology Department's Precision Developments Facility| where their researched methods enable work to be done to tolerances of ±0.0005mm. Larger scale work is done using CNC programming - letting the computer do the machining.
As part of the STFC apprenticeship scheme you may find yourself in a placement at Diamond Light Source Ltd|