Meet our apprentices

Picture of Royal Mail engineering apprentice Alexandra Allsop

In 2011-12, 18 new recruits joined Royal Mail’s engineering team, as part of our engineering apprentice  programme. Their mission: to learn all they need to keep our sorting equipment running at its best.

That includes Royal Mail’s latest machines, which are helping to make Royal Mail safer and more efficient. Within the course of their three-year programme, our novice engineers will become masters of equipment that processes up to 40,000 items per hour.

Individual responsibility is a key theme of the course. And while learning on-the-job how to minimise breakdowns and maximise output through ongoing maintenance and repairs, apprentices are also working towards a BTEC and NVQ Level 3.

Programme participant Alexandra Allsop says: “The apprenticeship is a good way of entering the engineering environment I’m looking forward to working my way up.”

A new generation of mechanics

We also run a motor vehicles apprentice programme at Royal Mail, alongside the engineering apprenticeship. This programme aims to help us build a team of highly skilled engineers capable of maintaining and repairing our fleet of  vehicles.

Dave Roberts, technical skills adviser for fleet and maintenance services, says: "Our motor vehicle technician apprentice scheme lasts four years.

"‘We expect applicants to have at least five GCSEs at grade C or higher and they will reach at least NVQ level 3 during their apprenticeship.

"Our apprentices will drive on behalf of the business and this is the starting point for a long-term career with ongoing career development."

Michael Ghigo, a graduate of the motor vehicle apprenticeship and now a technician at Croydon, says: "I've always loved mechanics as a hobby and when I left school this job gave me the perfect platform to earn and learn the trade with a perfect mix of hands-on and academic learning."