The apprenticeship integrates academic learning at degree level with your full-time work experience. As you are employed as an apprentice throughout the programme, you will apply what you learn in the classroom to real-industry situations. At the same time, you will bring real industry challenges into the classroom to help develop a deeper understanding of manufacturing engineering and current trends.

The Manufacturing Engineer Degree Apprenticeship at Canterbury Christ Church University is a unique and inclusive learning opportunity, co-designed with local industry to equip apprentices with the knowledge, understanding, and skills to take on the role of a manufacturing engineer.

What the apprenticeship covers

Manufacturing engineers primarily support the activities involved in bringing design programmes into manufacture. This role is pivotal to the launch planning and smooth delivery of exciting new products or product refresh programmes. The focus is on the advanced manufacturing techniques and project management skills required to launch products on time, on cost, and to the right quality. Typically manufacturing engineers work closely with a range of other engineers, functions, and managers both within their own company and supplier base.

What will I study?

The apprenticeship degree includes a 3-year taught work/study programme with an additional 6 months set aside for completing the compulsory End Point Assessment (EPA). As part of the apprenticeship standard requirements, you are required to have 20% of your working week dedicated to off-job apprenticeship learning (1 day in 5).

Each academic year consists of 120 credits of study, typically 40 credits per trimester. Each trimester is 15 weeks and consists of:

• 10 weeks of 1 day a week off-the-job in class studying
• 5 weeks of 1 day off-the job degree assessment and/or directed/self-study activities.

The apprenticeship degree will provide learning in the following areas:

• programming, installation, and maintenance of the automated machinery (computer-assisted process and control engineering), ensuring efficient use energy
• overseeing the flow of raw materials into a factory and through the production lines (enterprise resource planning), ensuring product quality, reliability and output levels
• logistic solutions to inventory or to the customer’s site (environmental protection, safety and handling of hazardous materials).

Our engineering apprenticeships adopt the CDIO (Conceive, Design, Implement, and Operate) engineering education model, developed by MIT. CDIO has been shown to develop and produce ‘industry-ready’ engineers and will assist in producing the right engineers for the local economy.

How you'll learn

All our engineering courses have been designed around an approach to Engineering education called CDIO (Conceive, Design, Implement. and Operate/Observe) developed by MIT. Each academic year you will typically complete one CDIO project as part of your degree apprenticeship studies. These projects will be typically sourced from local industry and therefore provide you and your peers with the potential opportunity to contribute to the local economy.

This apprenticeship degree aims to equip you with the knowledge, understanding, skills. and behaviours as defined in the apprenticeship standard. This supports you in the role as an apprentice and finally a graduate manufacturing engineer.

You will normally attend Mid-Kent College and University for 3 trimesters per year, for one day a week. and attend classes during the day. This will consist of a blend of online and face to face tutorials, lectures, and lab and engineering workshops. You will undertake independent study in the workplace to complete the requirements of the course with ready access to library resources at both Mid-Kent college and the University.

The level 4 (Year 1) and some Level 5 (first part of Year 2) modules will be delivered by the Mid-Kent College and the remaining level 5 (second half of Year 2) and level 6 (Year 3) modules will be delivered by the University.

The course has been co-designed with the college and local industry to meet the requirements of an apprenticeship course according to the apprenticeship standards as set out by the Institute of Apprenticeships.

Assessment

The assessments are designed to support learning and work-related activities to the benefit of the apprentice and the employer. Modules are assessed by various combinations of coursework and examination. The coursework assessment will also support your personal development and preparation for the Apprenticeship End Point of Assessment.

Benefits of studying an apprenticeship 

• A sense of job security. Apprentices who prove themselves valuable at their workplaces showcase their technical, professional, and interpersonal skills. The level of investment in them by the hiring company, coupled with the aforementioned skills, significantly increases their chances of staying on with the company. Trained apprentices often end up being hired permanently by their organisations, and those who choose to leave their organisations typically do so having accrued significant levels of work experience and industrial connections that will greatly aid them in the future.
• Improved one-on-one training. Many students must research and learn the principles they are taught in class, with fellow peers using supporting materials. Apprenticeships allow for trainees to have mentors who will walk them through their training, give them time and room to grow and learn from their mistakes, and meet and work with seasoned industrial experts. Learning one-on-one has also been proven to be more effective than learning in a class setting, with results showing that the former leads to better trained and more confident students than the latter.
• Earn as you are learn with no student debt. As apprentices learn different skills and apply them, companies recognise these efforts and pay their trainees. This boosts their morale and encourages them to do more and learn more. Apprentices also do not have to take out any loans to pay for their learning.
• Making a difference at the workplace. Apprentices get the chance to make a difference at their workplaces by applying the principles that they have learned and use their ingenuity to come up with solutions for the company. When they make a difference, and their work will be recognised by various professionals who will seek their services.

More information

Full information on the apprenticeship standard