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Apprenticeships

Your career development

Our programmes provide you with the necessary skills to develop a rewarding career as a specialist laboratory or engineering technician.

Future roles

Our apprentices are equipped with the skills to specialise into any number of different roles. Some of these include:

  • Analytical scientist/support staff
  • Experimental and senior experimental officers
  • Laboratory technicians
  • Senior laboratory technicians
  • Laboratory managers
  • Scientific glassblowers
  • Safety advisors
  • Workshop managers
  • Workshop supervisors
  • Workshop technicians
  • Technical service managers
  • Chemical plant operators/technicians
  • Control system engineers (process control)
  • Supporting analytical services
  • Assisting in the undergraduate teaching laboratories
  • Assisting post-graduate research projects
  • Cutting edge research technicians
  • Electrical technician
  • Electronics technician
  • Physics/Biology technician
  • Project manager
  • Project officer

After completion of your training we will support you in finding your first role. There may even be the chance to join the University as a permanent member of staff.

Your future career

Career progression is excellent for apprentices, and over the course of their careers, those with an Apprenticeship earn, on average, £100,000 more than those without. 
[A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Apprenticeships and Other Vocational Qualifications, University of Sheffield, 2007]

Some Apprenticeships already attract UCAS points or allow you to study for a Technical Certificate. Once the Apprenticeship has finished there’s the opportunity to carry on working, maybe get promoted or go on to higher education in a college or university.

The National Apprenticeship Service is working with UCAS to extend this system so that more qualifications gained during an Apprenticeship count towards an individual’s university application.

Potential earnings

The University of Manchester offers competitive apprentice salaries, please see individual apprenticeship job descriptions for expected salary.

The apprentice 'National Minimum Wage' applies to all 16 to 18 year olds and to those aged 19 and over in the first year of their Apprenticeship. If you reach age 19 and have completed the first year of your Apprenticeship your employer must pay you at least the 'full National Minimum Wage' rate for those aged 18 to 20.

If you are already 19 and have completed the first year of your Apprenticeship you must be paid at least the 'National Minimum Wage' rate for your age.