Training

It's three years of training, on-the-job experience and continual support, and you'll learn something new every day.

Our Advanced Apprenticeship Scheme is a three-year programme that equips you with the skills and experience to become a Maintenance Engineering Technician. One of the first things you need to do is decide which area of engineering you want to focus on, Track, Signalling, Electrification & Plant, or Telecoms. There are also limited opportunities in other disciplines – these are dependent on location and will be discussed further at Assessment Centres.

Whichever route you choose to take, you’ll spend your first year at the training centre in Gosport. The next two years are spent in your chosen location, where you will work with experienced teams. From the very beginning, you’ll learn about our very high safety standards. And this will be a critical part of your everyday life with Network Rail.

Once you leave the training centre and join a maintenance engineering team you’ll start working various shift patterns that will include early mornings, night shifts, bank holidays and weekends.

After three years, you’ll have the qualifications - NVQ, BTec and ILM (Institute of Leadership and Management) - and skills to develop a long-term career with Network Rail. Many of our Apprentices complete their first year and soon start to think about their career options – and many set their sights on becoming technical officers, team leaders or managers. And there are even further opportunities to study a foundation degree for those who demonstrate the commitment and ability.