Apprentice Electrical Maintenance Technician

Apprentice Electrical Maintenance Technician

Working hours Full time with day/block release study at college

4 years’ Apprenticeship – starting September 2025

Salary £24,242 per year, Salary progression for specialist technical modules once apprenticeship is complete.

Location Pity Me, Durham, County Durham 

Thinking about life after school or college or perhaps a change in career? 

Maybe you enjoy fixing things or prefer being outdoors or doing hands on practical work?

Are you looking for an opportunity to learn a new skill?

We’re launching our Electrical Maintenance apprenticeship programme to support our teams across our regions to keep the water and wastewater flowing to our customers across the regions we operate in. This is a fantastic opportunity to join a NWG and really kick start your career! 

So, what will you be doing?

Our Maintenance Apprenticeship Programme offers you the chance to earn whilst you learn new skills and gain valuable work experience and qualifications. You’ll be provided with the opportunity to achieve a Level 3 Maintenance and Engineering Operations Apprenticeship, over the four years of the apprenticeship.

You’ll be developing the skills and experience needed to take responsibility for our equipment, making sure it’s maintained to a high standard to serve our local communities.  With no two days the same, whether the work is planned, to prevent a problem happening, or to fix something when it goes wrong, you’ll keep our services running smoothly to deliver the vital service we provide.

The training will involve a combination of day/block release study at college learning about mechanical and/or electrical maintenance., where you’ll be studying towards a Diploma in engineering theory. The remaining time will be spent putting your skills into practice and working closely with our Maintenance Technicians on our sites to gain on the job experience and building your portfolio of experience. 

Your development is just as important to us as it is to you, and you may be given the opportunity to study for a Higher National Certificate (HNC) if you are performing well, and we’ll support you to attain professional registration with the IET through your apprenticeship.

We’ll give you all the tools for the job including all your uniform, your PPE and a company van too. Once you are fully trained up, you will take part in a standby rota, which you will be paid additionally for.

Many of our apprentices go on to roles such as Maintenance Team Leader, Technical Planner and Reliability Engineer.  

About you:

We are looking for you to be passionate and interested in the work that we do, with an appreciation of our core values, particularly safety and the desire to do well. 

You’ll have a can-do attitude, be up for working outdoors in all weathers and a passion for fixing things would be great too. You’ll have a passion for learning new things, able to take learnings from the education side of the apprenticeship and putting it into practice on the job.

After a year or so with the company, you will be given a van so will need a full UK driving licence. Don't worry if you don't have a driving licence just yet, as long as you intend and commit to learn to drive - you're fine to apply! 

To meet the college requirements, we are looking for a minimum of 5 GCSE’s grade C or grade 4 which must include Maths, English and a Science or Engineering Technical subject.

Dates for your diary:

Part of the recruitment process will be for you to attend a Candidate Assessment Centre in Durham and we anticipate to hold these in March 2025. We are looking for successful candidates to commence their apprenticeship with us in September 2025, or potentially sooner.

Here at Northumbrian Water/Essex & Suffolk Water, we embrace and value Diversity, Inclusion and Equity, and encourage all colleagues to bring their most authentic self to work.

Our colleague network groups include our Rainbow Support Network (LGBTQIA+), REACH (Race, Ethnicity, and Cultural Heritage), WiSTEM (Women in STEM) and Thisability (disability and neurodiversity) networks. They provide a safe space for colleagues from diverse backgrounds, welcoming all colleagues regardless of their personal characteristics to participate in valuable conversation that improves our organisational awareness, understanding and inclusivity.

We encourage and welcome all applications, as we strive to be an equal opportunity employer, committed to having diverse communities represented within all our teams, structures, and organisation. 

Please note this role may require a DBS to be completed prior to employment.

NWG are an inclusive employer who support the rehabilitation of offenders, we will not, however consider candidates who have certain unspent convictions to ensure our commitment to fostering a safe and secure working environment for all OR colleagues, suppliers, customers and third parties.

About us

Here are NWG we strive to make Northumbrian Water Group (NWG) a Great Place to Work, for all. We embrace and value Diversity, Inclusion and Equity and encourage you to bring your full self to work. As an equal opportunity employer we’re committed to having a diverse community represented across our business.

We’re aware that not everyone will have every skill listed in the job description, however if you have some of the skills listed, we'd encourage you to appl.y

NWG at a glance:

Our purpose at NWG is caring for the essential needs of our communities and environment, now and for generations to come. We do this by providing reliable and affordable water and wastewater services for our customers. We make a positive difference by operating efficiently and investing prudently, to maintain a sustainable and resilient business.

Our vision is to be the national leader in the provision of sustainable water and wastewater services. To support us in achieving our vision, we have five core values which are the guiding principles, defining who we are, what we do and how we do it.

This is a safety or security critical role and as a condition of a formal offer of employment prospective employees and agency workers must undergo a drug and alcohol test. This will be within four weeks of their start date. 

Anyone who fails a pre-employment urine drug screen will have their sample analysed by the Company appointed laboratory as a matter of course. Failing a pre-employment drugs or alcohol test may lead to the job offer being revoked.