The Royal Navy - Catering Services ( Production Chef Apprenticeship )

Royal Navy

Hampshire (PO2 8BY)

Closes on Monday 1 June 2026

Posted on 4 June 2024

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Summary

Travelling around the world, your job will range from cooking for the ship's company on board warships or Royal Marines on land operations, to serving a fine dining experience to politically influential VIPs and Royalty. Responsibility for ordering, receiving, and accounting for provisions to sustain the menus you write ashore and at sea.

Wage

£20,400 a year

Check minimum wage rates (opens in new tab)

Training course
Production chef (level 2)
Hours
Working week 40 Hours Shifts TBC Total hours per week: 40.00

40 hours a week

Start date

Tuesday 2 June 2026

Duration

1 year 6 months

Positions available

100

Work

Most of your apprenticeship is spent working. You’ll learn on the job by getting hands-on experience.

What you’ll do at work

  • The Royal Navy represents the United Kingdom worldwide, forging new alliances and maintaining old ones. Being a Caterer in the Royal Navy is a career that is literally miles from anything you could do at home
  • Taking responsibility of ordering, receiving, and accounting for provisions to sustain the menus you write and there’s a good chance you could be at sea for months at a time, the role of Caterer becomes about a lot more than food
  • You’ll be at the centre of keeping morale high and health at its optimum while you are on board, while maintaining excellent standards of personal, food and kitchen hygiene
  • Ensure compliance with procedures, menu specifications and recipes and produce food meeting portion controls, and budgetary constraints
  • Adapt and produce dishes to meet special dietary, religious and allergenic requirements and follow, complete and maintain production schedules, legislative and quality standard documentation
  • Use specialist kitchen equipment, communicate internally and externally with customers and colleagues and commit to personal development activities

Where you’ll work

Navy Command HQ
The Admiral Sir Henry Leach Building
Portsmouth
Hampshire
PO2 8BY

Training

Apprenticeships include time away from working for specialist training. You’ll study to gain professional knowledge and skills.

College or training organisation

ROYAL NAVY

Your training course

Production chef (level 2)

Equal to GCSE

Course contents
  • Prepare and cook pre-portioned fresh and frozen meat, fish, and poultry to business standards.
  • Prepare and cook fresh and frozen fruit and vegetables to business standards.
  • Prepare salad vegetables to business standards.
  • Cook poached, simmered, steamed, boiled, braised, stewed, baked, grilled, and fried dishes.
  • Regenerate dried and frozen ingredients and dishes.
  • Undertake stock control, storage, and rotation.
  • Communicate professionally with colleagues, line managers, stakeholders, and customers.
  • Work as part of a team to support service delivery.
  • Follow specifications to produce, portion, and present food.
  • Manage own time to ensure allocated tasks are completed.
  • Use techniques for maintaining good mental health and wellbeing to support self and others, including asking for and giving help with daily tasks.
  • Use feedback to improve own performance.
  • Prepare and close down an area for service.
  • Use problem solving techniques to resolve routine and non-routine issues within scope of own role.
  • Maintain prep and par levels according to business need.
  • Clean and maintain manual and electrical food-preparation and cooking tools, equipment, and technology.
  • Follow standard operating procedures to select and safely use appropriate knives and boards for the task, for example red handled knife and red board for raw meat.
  • Monitor and record food temperatures and manage allergens during preparation, cooking, holding, and serving.
  • Apply hygiene management techniques to maintain a safe clean work environment, for example COSHH, personal hygiene, and uniform.
  • Reduce the waste of resources, acting to measure and reduce plate waste, exercise portion control, and maximise yield.
  • Comply with health and safety legislation, regulations, guidelines and procedures, including stress management.
  • Follow equity, diversity, and inclusion legislation and organisational policies.
  • Deliver to key performance indicators to support the production, performance, and budget within own area of responsibility.
  • Use manual and electrical food-preparation and cooking tools, equipment, machinery, and technology.
  • Prepare and cook pre-portioned fresh and frozen meat, fish, and poultry to business standards.
  • Prepare and cook fresh and frozen fruit and vegetables to business standards.
  • Prepare salad vegetables to business standards.
  • Cook poached, simmered, steamed, boiled, braised, stewed, baked, grilled, and fried dishes.
  • Regenerate dried and frozen ingredients and dishes.
  • Undertake stock control, storage, and rotation.
  • Communicate professionally with colleagues, line managers, stakeholders, and customers.
  • Work as part of a team to support service delivery.
  • Follow specifications to produce, portion, and present food.
  • Manage own time to ensure allocated tasks are completed.
  • Use techniques for maintaining good mental health and wellbeing to support self and others, including asking for and giving help with daily tasks.
  • Use feedback to improve own performance.
  • Prepare and close down an area for service.
  • Use problem solving techniques to resolve routine and non-routine issues within scope of own role.
  • Maintain prep and par levels according to business need.
  • Clean and maintain manual and electrical food-preparation and cooking tools, equipment, and technology.
  • Follow standard operating procedures to select and safely use appropriate knives and boards for the task, for example red handled knife and red board for raw meat.
  • Monitor and record food temperatures and manage allergens during preparation, cooking, holding, and serving.
  • Apply hygiene management techniques to maintain a safe clean work environment, for example COSHH, personal hygiene, and uniform.
  • Reduce the waste of resources, acting to measure and reduce plate waste, exercise portion control, and maximise yield.
  • Comply with health and safety legislation, regulations, guidelines and procedures, including stress management.
  • Follow equity, diversity, and inclusion legislation and organisational policies.
  • Deliver to key performance indicators to support the production, performance, and budget within own area of responsibility.
  • Use manual and electrical food-preparation and cooking tools, equipment, machinery, and technology.

Your training plan

At the end of your Apprenticeship training you will have achieved:

  • Level 2 Apprenticeship – Production Chef
  • Off-the-job training will be conducted in Hampshire in the South of England
  • On the job training can be carried out in a wide variety of locations on land or at sea around the world or in the UK
  • Other qualifications 
  • Foundation Food Hygiene Certificate
  • Health and Safety Certificate

Requirements

Desirable qualifications

GCSE or equivalent in:

  • Math and English (grade GCSE Level 4)

Let the company know about other relevant qualifications and industry experience you have. They can adjust the apprenticeship to reflect what you already know.

Skills

  • Communication skills
  • Attention to detail
  • Organisation skills
  • Customer care skills
  • Problem solving skills
  • Administrative skills
  • Logical
  • Team working
  • Creative
  • Initiative
  • Non judgemental
  • Patience
  • A keen interest in catering

Other requirements

The Royal Navy represents the United Kingdom worldwide, forging new alliances and maintaining old ones. Being a Caterer in the Royal Navy is a career that is literally miles from anything you could do at home. Taking responsibility for ordering, receiving, and accounting for provisions you’ll be at the centre of keeping morale on board.

About this company

The Royal Navy (RN) is responsible for the protection of British interests at home and around the World. 95% of all world trade passes through the high seas and every year Britain imports £524 billion worth of goods. The RN takes an active part in the protection of British Shipping. Around the United Kingdom the RN protects vital fishing stocks by monitoring fishing activities in our waters. We recruit throughout the year, so please ignore Key Dates

https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/careers (opens in new tab)

After this apprenticeship

  • You’ll start your naval career as an Able Rate. With experience and further training, you could be promoted to Leading Hand and beyond
  • If you show the right commitment, skills, and academic ability, you could become a Commissioned Officer
  • Members of the Royal Navy are promoted on merit. Work hard and you can rise through the ranks

Ask a question

The contact for this apprenticeship is:

ROYAL NAVY

The reference code for this apprenticeship is VAC1000255358.

Apply now

Closes on Monday 1 June 2026

When you apply, you’ll be asked to sign in with a GOV.UK One Login. You can create one at the same time as applying for this apprenticeship.

After signing in, you’ll apply for this apprenticeship on the company's website.

Company’s application instructions

A job in the Naval Service means adventure, camaraderie – and lifelong prospects. Every day you make a difference. And no two days are the same. You could be policing the world's oceans, delivering humanitarian aid when natural or man-made disasters strike. Or you could be deployed in combat. No matter what job you do, you'll be a key part in operations around the world. Are you ready to go places?