How To Become An Engineering Maintenance Technician

How confident are you at putting your old SIM card into a new phone? Do you know how to turn the heating up or down where you live? It’s not exactly engineering maintenance, but it’s a start because it shows you are not afraid of working with your hands to make equipment run properly.

There’s strong demand for engineering technicians who can install, maintain and repair machinery and equipment. It’s a good way to get into engineering without a degree, and your job could even take you overseas. You could work with anything from office equipment and computers to laboratory equipment and aircraft, depending on your employer.

Is there something you’d like to know about engineering careers? Maybe we can help!

• DID YOU KNOW? You can get into these careers with T Levels!
• What types of engineering are there?
• Engineering jobs you can do without a degree
• How school STEM clubs help you build engineering skills
• See why engineering students are in demand for construction careers!

See more

Useful skills to put in your CV:

• Good problem solving skills and an enquiring mind – you will use trained skills and a bit of common sense to keep machinery and equipment ticking over.
• Good organisation skills – a good work person never blames their tools, so you will always pay attention to the state of your kit and the safe way in which you use them. Health and safety matters a lot when you’re working with maintenance!
• Teamworking skills – you will often be working in a team taking guidance and direction from a line manager who knows the job inside-out. Soak up what they know and aim to stay positive in the workplace! As you progress in your career, you’ll also build leadership skills and could end up in a senior role.

Top Skills-boosting Tip

If you work on improving your communication skills, it will help you explain problems you’ve discovered clearly to your line manager.

How Do You Get These Skills?

Vocational qualifications and work experience will help you build these skills over time.

Build Your Skills With the FREE Young Professional Programme

School, college and training

In your GCSEs or the equivalent, aim to get passing grades of 9-4 (A*-C) in maths and at least one science. This is because it will give you more options with your engineering career later down the line.

You can then go on to take at least one A-level or equivalent qualification in a topic related to science, engineering or maths. This will be useful if you plan to complete a college course in electrical or electronic engineering before finding a trainee position in a company.

The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), the Science Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies Alliance (SEMTA), and Tomorrow’s Engineers have more information about careers in engineering.

Vocational Qualifications

As an alternative to A-levels, you can study a vocational course. You could think about doing an HNC/HND or foundation degree in one of the following subjects:

• HND/HNC Mechanical engineering

You could also take a job as a technician after leaving school then study a vocational course related to mechanical engineering part-time.

T-Levels

T-Levels are a choice for learners after GCSEs alongside apprenticeships and A-levels. You can do a T-Level in Engineering, Manufacturing, Processing and Control. This qualification comes with an industry placement and can help you get an engineering career.

BTECs

As an alternative to A-Levels, you can do BTECs from the age of 16. The BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma in Mechanical Engineering gives you the specialist knowledge and technical skills to progress into, for example, an apprenticeship or employment.You’ll learn a lot including engineering principles, electronice devices/circuits, and computer-aided design.

Apprenticeships

An apprenticeship is a scheme where you train while earning a starting salary.

There are all kinds of engineering apprenticeships available, at different levels to suit your level of education. Young engineers are in high demand so if you’re keen to learn, potential employers will love to hear from you.

For example, you have five GCSEs or the equivalent including English, maths and science, you can apply for a Level 3 electrical or mechanical engineering apprenticeship. You’ll learn to install, maintain and repair services and/or products and equipment while receiving training towards a formal qualification.

University degrees and graduates

You can do a foundation degree or degree to become an electrical engineer or mechanical engineer. These typically involve time to secure work placements so that you can build your experience as well as your knowledge. There are lots of engineering graduate schemes available once you finish your degree.

After you’ve done an Advanced Apprenticeship you can go on to do a Level 4 Advanced Engineering Higher Apprenticeship (e.g. in manufacturing engineering). You can also train for further engineering qualifications like a Higher National Certificate (HNC), a foundation degree or a degree.

You can be given more responsibilities over time, as you get to know the ins and outs of engineering maintenance. With time and experience you can become a qualified engineer specialising in your chosen area (e.g. electrical or mechanical engineering). You could become a team leader, supervisor or manager. You could also move into technical sales roles and contract management.

Work Experience Tips

To become an engineering maintenance technician it will help you to have previous experience of working with equipment and/or technology. This will help you demonstrate to employers that you have a genuine interest in engineering and technology and are motivated to do your job.

Aim to get relevant work experience to build your CV as early as you can. This can involve:

• Jobs, work experience or placements in anywhere from an office to a factory (if you’re the one they come to when the office printer is broken, you could be perfect for this job)
• Offering to fix broken equipment for friends and family, whether it’s a jammed home office printer or a lawnmower that just needs a tweak to get it working again.

Examples of relevant work experience include:

• Work shadowing (even if it’s just for a day)
• Work placements in a company
• Work experience placements on a college or university course

Work experience tips

Volunteering Tips

Volunteering is an excellent way to build up your skills and CV while making connections with people and organisations who could help you in the future.

If you’re still at school, you can work on your engineering skills outside of lessons to build your first CV. One way is to join a school STEM club.

Look for volunteering opportunities where you can operate equipment, if you’re allowed to, or work with your hands.

Volunteer with projects where you can explore your technical and practical skills, especially in the world of engineering and manufacturing.

If you enjoy fiddling with things like mobile phones and equipment settings to get them just right, you could really enjoy this job! Any activities that involve you working with your hands suggest you might enjoy this job. Yes, that includes crafting and knitting and sewing. Crafting, DIY, going under the bonnet of a car… it’s all about working with your hands to operate equipment.

If you enjoy solving puzzles in anything from whodunnit thrillers to video games, you could have the sort of problem-solving skills that are really useful for an engineering career.

Volunteering tips

Knowing a little more about engineering maintenance will help you show employers that you understand what this job is about. It can also help you decide if it’s right for you.

Because the work you do can be so varied, you are likely to build up a good working knowledge of all kinds of different areas of engineering. These include mechanical, electrical and electronic engineering. That’s why being an engineering maintenance technician is a great role for discovering what you like most about engineering and specialising in your favourite areas once you gain more experience.

Example daily job responsibilities

• Keeping equipment in tip-top shape so that it does its job and is safe to use.
• Keeping to a schedule for safety checks so that you can spot problems before they become serious
• Talking to people who use equipment regularly about how they can do their own maintenance (e.g. oiling machines)
• Checking instruments to make sure they’re accurate
• Replacing worn-out parts or letting teams of fitters know that it’s time for them to replace or repair parts
• Carrying out emergency repair services when needed

To find jobs for young people in this role, search on jobs boards for early career roles and opportunities with these words in the title:

• Engineering maintenance technician
• Repair/maintenance technician
• Engineering technician apprentice
• Apprentice maintenance technician
• Apprentice maintenance engineer

You can also take a look at our database of local opportunities to see if there are any relevant jobs, work placements, or careers events and workshops to help you get started.

These websites might be able to help you find electrical engineering experience or a role that’s a good fit for you:

• Find an Apprenticeship
• EngineeringUK
• Tomorrow’s Engineers
• Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET)
• Science, Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies Alliance (SEMTA)
• Engineering Council (ECUK)
• Women into Science, Engineering and Construction (WISE)

These employers all carry our Youth Friendly Employer Mark. We work with them to make sure that they are providing great support and opportunities to young people.

Click on an employer to find out more about them and the youth-friendly opportunities they offer, from work experience and apprenticeships through to graduate schemes.