Marine Engineer careers guide & job description

Who builds boats, ships and even submarines? Who tests them out to make sure they are safe for the public, and who repairs them when things go wrong? This is the sort of thing you’d be doing if you became a marine engineer.

Fun fact: Cruise ships are popular and marine engineers can get very well paid for designing new ships that are basically floating cities of fun. This is definitely one of those jobs where you can travel to far-off places and get paid for it.

Useful Skills To Put On Your CV:

• Great project management skills (although you’ll be trained up in these at apprenticeship and graduate level)
• Great IT and numeracy skills
• Interpreting and reading data
• Working to tight and pressured deadlines
• Prioritising busy workloads – self-management skills always come in handy!
• Good problem solving skills – you get to the root of problems to explore possible solutions

• Excellent communication skills
• Good teamworking skills both in and out of the workplace, because you’ll often be living and working closely with colleagues
• Enthusiasm at the chance to work with all kinds of systems and equipment.

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

To become a marine engineer, aim to get the school qualifications that would help you get on an apprenticeship or degree course. This usually means at least five GCSEs or the equivalent including maths and a science subject with grades 9-4 (A*-C).

For a degree, HNC or HND course you’ll also most likely need at 1-3 A-levels or the equivalent in a relevant subject. Good news – you can choose to study for a relevant T-Level or similar vocational qualification, if you’re thinking of technical college as an alternative to school.

After school you can decide if you want to scout around for early career opportunities like apprenticeships or stay in the world of education and do further learning.

The Engineering Council has a list of qualifications and courses.

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 Marine BTEC National level 3 Extended Certificate in Engineering (RQF) gives you the specialist knowledge and technical skills to progress into, for example, an apprenticeship or employment. You’ll learn a lot, because it covers both mechanical and electrical engineering.

Apprenticeships

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

With an apprenticeship (or advanced apprenticeship) you’ll have a paid job with an employer that includes structured training and learning. This training leads to an official qualification that’s recognised by employers as an industry standard.

If you want to get into marine engineering straight after school, you can train as an engineering technician with employers like the Merchant Navy or Royal Navy.

You could also apply for a marine engineering technician apprenticeship with various employers.

You can seek out marine engineering apprenticeships with organisations like Find an Apprenticeship.

University degrees and graduates

You can study for a degree in one of the following subjects to get off to a flying start in this career:

• Marine engineering
• Marine Technology
• Naval architecture
• Offshore engineering

DID YOU KNOW? Some universities offer a one-year foundation course for those without a maths or science qualification.

Employers like the Merchant Navy or Royal Navy may offer degree apprenticeships which mean you can study for a degree while on the job – and you don’t have to pay student fees either.

UCAS has more information on degree courses and entry requirements.

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

With time and experience, you could start to specialise in project management or research and development. Once you become great at what you do, you could get involved in consultancy.

Experienced marine engineers can get to work in shore-based roles. You might have responsibility for vessel refits, or handle legal work in maritime engineering safety and shipping fleet management.

Work Experience Tips

If you go directly into the Merchant Navy, they have numerous pathways to becoming a marine engineer. They offer officer cadet training which requires at least four GCSEs ( grades 9-4 / A*-C) including English, Maths, Physics or a combined science, and three A-levels. They offer undergraduate programmes as well as graduate schemes. Everyone applying must undergo a medical examination which is paid for by an employer/potential employer or a training provider.

Examples of relevant work experience:

• Work shadowing (even if it’s just for a day)
• Work placements in a company
• Work placements on a degree course

Work experience tips

Getting Experience

If you’re aged 21 or under, you could build experience and skills relevant to design and engineering by becoming an Industrial Cadet. You’ll join other students from local schools to take part in industry based activities with a local employer. Visit industrialcadets.org.uk for more info.

Getting Experience

• British Marine Federation
• Institute of Marine Engineering Science and Technology
• Royal Navy
• Tomorrow’s Engineers

Marine engineers design, build and take care of the marine systems on ships. Your job will have so much variety, because you could be working on building the ship, or working onboard the ship itself, making sure it has power and fuel and the electricity to keep everything running smoothly.

As a marine engineer, you’d be expected to regularly survey ships, assessing whether they are safe to use.

You could also work in offshore oil and gas systems, making sure the design and construction of these are fit for purpose.

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:

• marine engineering apprenticeship
• marine engineering degree apprenticeship
• marine engineering graduate schemes

The Royal Navy takes applications for engineer officer roles from final year students and graduates of Engineering Council UK accredited engineer disciplines. Going down these routes will give you first-hand experience of marine engineering, and will help you plot your course.

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 marine 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.