Higher Level Quality Assurance Apprenticeship

Summary

Looking to gain experience in quality assurance across a diverse range of naval defence projects? If so, our 2-year Higher Level Apprenticeship in Quality Assurance could be the perfect fit for you.

Annual wage

£20,809 a year

Minimum wage rates (opens in new tab)

Year 1: £20,809 Year 2: £26,358

Training course

Quality practitioner (level 4)

Hours

Monday - Friday, shifts to be confirmed.

35 hours a week

Possible start date

Monday 1 September

Duration

2 years

Positions available

2

Work

As an apprentice, you’ll work at a company and get hands-on experience. You’ll gain new skills and work alongside experienced staff.

What you’ll do at work

Our Quality Assurance apprentices play a vital role in ensuring that our organisation operates at its best by acting as the 'voice of the customer'. They help maintain the highest standards, identify problems, and recommend improvements to ensure our policies, processes, and products are of the highest standards.
As a Quality Assurance apprentice, you will be an integral member of our Quality Management function. You’ll be based at HM Naval Base Devonport in Plymouth, with potential opportunities to travel across the UK.
Over the course of the 2 years, you will work in multiple placements, including:
Management System/Internal Audit
Supplier Quality
Operational Quality in production facilities
On board naval warships or nuclear submarines
Facilities (Nuclear and Non-Nuclear)
Major Infrastructure Projects
Defence Quality Field Force (working alongside the Customer)
Warships Quality
Depending on your placement, your typical day could include carrying out external supplier inspections, looking for efficiencies or problem-solving on our production shop floor, or the administration of internal and external audits.
Your tasks could include:
Supporting senior quality practitioners to formulate Quality Strategy
Inspecting and testing parts and products
Planning and conducting audits
Developing Quality Control Plans
Managing supplier relationships
Analysing data to identify improvements
Guiding and supporting others to improve quality competency and performance
Developing documents to support new projects.
It’s an exciting opportunity where your contributions as a Quality Technician will directly impact the quality and safety of our products, processes, and policies, helping us to continuously improve and keep our operations safe.

Where you’ll work

Devonport Royal Dockyard

Devonport

Plymouth

PL1 4SG

Training

An apprenticeship includes regular training with a college or other training organisation. At least 20% of your working hours will be spent training or studying.

College or training organisation

CAPELLA ASSOCIATES LTD

Your training course

Quality practitioner (level 4)

Equal to higher national certificate (HNC)

Course contents

Identify, interpret and apply relevant legal, governmental or industry regulations affecting the organisation.
Communicate using appropriate methods (verbal, written, visual) to influence internal and external stakeholders, using appropriate questioning techniques such as open questions, leading questions.
Identify, collect and analyse relevant quality data using appropriate tools and techniques such as Pareto analysis, statistical methods and trending analysis.
Apply methods and tools to improve the quality performance of processes, products and services such as production control plans, standardised work, use of failure modes and effects.
Identify, analyse and prioritise quality specific risks and opportunities. Support the development, implementation and effectiveness of resulting actions.
Plan and conduct system, product or process audits.
Assess the effectiveness of the measurement systems using tool such as Measurement Systems Analysis.
Identify requirements from technical documents, commercial input or stakeholder statements and converting to definitions that can drive the organisations processes
Identify gaps in process performance and develop improvement plans to close gaps.
Apply structured problem solving including identification, definition, measurement, analysis, improvement and control methods and tools.
Communicate organisational quality strategy to all levels of the organisation.
Identify who the internal and external stakeholders are and their current and optimal positions (such as hostile, help it work, opposed, uncooperative, indifferent, hesitant, enthusiastic support) required to support quality related activities.
Identify, interpret and apply relevant legal, governmental or industry regulations affecting the organisation.
Communicate using appropriate methods (verbal, written, visual) to influence internal and external stakeholders, using appropriate questioning techniques such as open questions, leading questions.
Identify, collect and analyse relevant quality data using appropriate tools and techniques such as Pareto analysis, statistical methods and trending analysis.
Apply methods and tools to improve the quality performance of processes, products and services such as production control plans, standardised work, use of failure modes and effects.
Identify, analyse and prioritise quality specific risks and opportunities. Support the development, implementation and effectiveness of resulting actions.
Plan and conduct system, product or process audits.
Assess the effectiveness of the measurement systems using tool such as Measurement Systems Analysis.
Identify requirements from technical documents, commercial input or stakeholder statements and converting to definitions that can drive the organisations processes
Identify gaps in process performance and develop improvement plans to close gaps.
Apply structured problem solving including identification, definition, measurement, analysis, improvement and control methods and tools.
Communicate organisational quality strategy to all levels of the organisation.
Identify who the internal and external stakeholders are and their current and optimal positions (such as hostile, help it work, opposed, uncooperative, indifferent, hesitant, enthusiastic support) required to support quality related activities.

Your training plan

You'll study to become a Level 4 Quality Practitioner which aligns with Chartered Quality Institute Practitioner (PCQI) professional recognition.

Your course is designed to equip you with the essential skills and knowledge to excel in the field of quality assurance. Through a mix of theoretical learning and hands-on application, you'll gain the tools you need to thrive.

Requirements

Essential qualifications

GCSE in:

any subject (grade C/4 or above)
any subject (grade C/4 or above)
any subject (grade C/4 or above)
English (grade C/4 or above)
Maths (grade C/4 or above)
any subject (grade A-C)
any subject (grade A-C)
any subject (grade A-C)

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

Attention to detail
Problem solving skills
Analytical skills
Logical
Initiative

Other requirements

Many of our early careers roles are subject to Security Clearance and Trade Control restrictions which mean that your place of birth, nationality, citizenship, or residency you hold may impact which roles you are eligible for. You must be able to achieve BPSS (Baseline security) and many of them require you to be eligible for Security Clearance.

About this company

Babcock is an international defence, aerospace and security company operating in our focus countries of the UK, Australasia, Canada, France and South Africa, with exports to additional markets with potential to become focus countries. We meet our customers’ key requirements of affordability, availability, and capability by delivering engineering, support and critical systems to defence and civil markets.

https://earlycareers.babcockinternational.com/ (opens in new tab)

Company benefits

Fully funded qualification, personal development, training and opportunities, minimum 28 days holiday allowance including bank holidays, competitive pension scheme, employee share scheme, flexible benefits including cycle to work scheme.

Disability Confident

A fair proportion of interviews for this apprenticeship will be offered to applicants with a disability or long-term health condition. This includes non-visible disabilities and conditions.

You can choose to be considered for an interview under the Disability Confident scheme. You’ll need to meet the essential requirements to be considered for an interview.

After this apprenticeship

It’s hard to beat the variety of fantastic opportunities and business experiences you’ll receive. You can expect real world encounters and exposure to exciting projects that will really help you navigate where you want to take your career.

Plus, when you join us, you’ll be automatically enrolled onto our Apprentice Development Programme. Through a series of digital and face to face sessions, presented by wellbeing and performance experts and our external partners, we will equip you with the knowledge and tools you need to thrive and perform at your very best on your programme and beyond.

Ask a question

The contact for this apprenticeship is:

CAPELLA ASSOCIATES LTD

The reference code for this apprenticeship is VAC1000286778.

Apply now

Closes on Thursday 20 March

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

Once you’ve clicked ‘Apply’, you’ll be taken to our application site. Set up a candidate profile and you can apply for roles at Babcock.

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