SiteThe advert for a multi-skilled engineer has been up since spring. Two replies. One wanted far more than the budget. The other had never seen a PLC.
Meanwhile your best electrician is 58, and the fitter who knows the old press inside out talks about retiring at 60.
Every site in the area is chasing the same small pool of experienced engineers. You can keep paying more to win them, or you can start making your own.
An apprentice won't fix this year's gap. In four years' time, though, they could be the engineer you couldn't hire.
What you're signing up for
Apprentices are 16 or over and combine work with study. GOV.UK says an apprenticeship can take from 8 months to 6 years*, depending on the type and level (GOV.UK, employing an apprentice). For a maintenance engineer, plan on the long end.
You're responsible for making sure your apprentice:
- works with experienced staff
- learns job-specific skills
- gets time off in the working week for training
That first point is the one sites underestimate. An apprentice needs a named engineer to learn from, and that engineer needs time to teach. If your team is already flat out on breakdowns, nobody has that time.
You also sign two documents. An apprenticeship agreement covers the trade, the course, the dates and the training. A training plan, signed with the training provider, sets out the content and schedule, and what each side will do (GOV.UK, apprenticeship agreement).
What it costs
The apprentice minimum wage is £8 an hour* from April 2026. It applies to apprentices under 19, and to those 19 or over in their first year. After the first year, an apprentice aged 19 or over gets the normal minimum wage for their age (GOV.UK, minimum wage rates). Those are floors. Most sites will need to pay more to attract anyone good.
You pay for training time as well as work time. Apprentices also get the same conditions as other staff at a similar grade, including paid holidays and sick pay (GOV.UK, pay and conditions).
The training itself is mostly funded. These rules are for England. If you don't pay the apprenticeship levy, the government pays 100%* of training and assessment for apprentices aged 16 to 24, up to the funding band maximum. For older apprentices you pay 5%* and the government pays the rest (GOV.UK, funding).
Non-levy employers may also get a hiring payment of up to £2,000* for an apprentice aged 16 to 24. It comes in two payments of £1,000, and you only get each one if the apprentice is still with you.
The levy itself is 0.5%* of your annual pay bill, paid only if the bill is over £3 million* (HMRC, Apprenticeship Levy). Most small and mid-sized sites won't pay it.
Under 18s need a different plan
A 16- or 17-year-old can't do what your other engineers do with hours. They can't work more than 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week* (GOV.UK, maximum working hours). They're usually entitled to 12 hours* daily rest and 48 hours* weekly rest (GOV.UK, young workers' rest). So no long breakdown nights and no on-call rota.
HSE says young people are at more risk of injury in their first six months in a job. They may lack experience, be eager to impress, or not know how to raise a concern. They may need more supervision than adults (HSE, young people at work). Our post on the extra duties for young workers covers the risk assessment side.
Apprentices don't have to be school leavers. An operator who's handy with a spanner can do an apprenticeship too, and they already know your machines. One catch: the hiring payment isn't paid if the apprentice has worked for you for more than 90 days* before training starts. Our post on engineering apprenticeships for adults looks at that route.
Make the teaching part of the job
Most apprenticeships that go wrong on a maintenance team go wrong the same way. The apprentice becomes a spare pair of hands. They fetch parts, clean up, hold the torch. Two years in, they've never fault-found anything on their own.
Here's how we'd run it:
- Name one mentor, and put time for it in their week.
- Start with PPM. Planned work is where an apprentice can learn the machine without the pressure of a stopped line.
- Bring them to breakdowns as a second pair of eyes, and talk through the fault-finding out loud. Let them make the first guess.
- Give them a skills list for each machine and sign items off as they go.
- Keep them away from live work and isolation decisions until they've been trained and you've checked they're competent.
Our guide to supervising a less experienced engineer has more on how much to hand over, and when.
Cover the gap while they learn
Here's the honest cost. For the first couple of years, an apprentice slows your team down. The mentor fixes things more slowly with someone to teach. The apprentice isn't yet a name you can put on a breakdown alone.
So don't take on an apprentice to solve a staffing gap. Take one on as well as solving it. If your team is already short, book cover for the breakdowns and the nights so your mentor has time to teach. Otherwise the teaching is the first thing to go when the line stops, and the apprentice learns very little.
Done well, it pays back. Your apprentice learns your machines, your site and your way of working. With the retirements coming on most maintenance teams, and engineers as hard to find as they are, growing your own is one of the few things you fully control.
What to do on Monday
- Ask your local college or training provider which maintenance apprenticeships they run, and when the next intake starts.
- Check your pay bill against the levy threshold, and what funding you can get.
- Pick a mentor, and work out what they'd stop doing to make time.
- Decide how you'll cover breakdowns while the mentor is teaching.
* Apprenticeship length, the apprentice minimum wage, funding shares, the hiring payment, levy rate and threshold, and young workers' hours and rest correct as of 1 October 2026. Check GOV.UK on employing an apprentice and GOV.UK minimum wage rates for the latest.