Job title: Engineering Technician Apprenticeship, Barnard Castle, UK, 2024
Company: GlaxoSmithKline
Job description: Engineering Technician Apprenticeship, Barnard Castle, UK, 2024
This role is based in Barnard Castle, County Durham where we supply medicines to our patients all around the globe. We operate at an impressive scale, producing over 85 million packs of medicine in 2022. Some of our medicines include:
HIV Prevention and Cure
Migraine Treatment
Cold Sore Treatment
Hay Fever Treatment
You will be part of 1000 strong inclusive and diverse team working on the site. As a prospective technician you will learn how to maintain and repair the equipment that creates quality products in our manufacturing suites, fills them in aseptic facilities and packs them in state-of-the-art machinery.
Education required:
English Language (not Literature) GCSE at grade 4 or above.
Plus 4 additional GCSEs including Maths and a Science at grade 5 or above.
Must be able to commute to either the GSK Barnard Castle site or South Durham Training
Join GSK’s Engineering Technician Apprentice Programme – UK, 2023: Help us get ahead of disease together and earn while you learn
Starting salary of £16,000 increasing to £22,400 / year after 1 year + annual bonus based on company performance
Kickstart a long-term and rewarding career with nationally recognized Engineering Technician qualifications. Lots of our current Engineering First Line Leaders and Engineering Operations Managers started their careers as Engineering Technician Apprentices so this is a great starting point!
All costs of your apprenticeship covered by GSK
Expected Start date: September 2024
What will you be doing day-day?
At South West Durham Training:
Attend 4 days a week in the first year to complete and pass AME Level 2.
Attend 1 day a week in year 2, 3 and 4 to complete and pass a BTEC Level 3 and HNC.
completing Practical and Academic learning activities, on time and to the your highest achievable standard.
At GSK Barnard Castle
Work as a flexible and motivated member of the team.
Engage with fully trained Technicians to learn the operation, maintenance and repair of a wide range of Manufacture, Filling, Inspection and Packaging equipment.
Complete Continuous Improvement, safety & quality Engineering actions.
Provide technical support for projects including new product launches, equipment introductions and machine upgrades.
Work various shift patterns to ensure the operational needs of the business are met and learning opportunities are maximised.
Here’s how some of our current Engineering Tech Apprentices describe their roles:
Aidan Dunn, Barnard Castle, Engineering Apprentice:
I really enjoy the role as an Engineering Apprentice as it has a wide variety of work, and it allows me to apply the academic knowledge that I learn at college on real equipment in a factory environment. One of the best things about working for GSK is that it has provided me with opportunities to develop. I particularly enjoyed the outward-bound that we undertook as I got to make friends with people from all over the world during the trip.
You will be working at GSK’s Barnard Castle manufacturing facility where you’ll be learning how to maintain and improve our pharmaceutical manufacturing equipment and facilities, helping to ensure we can make the medicines and vaccines that we supply to patients.
This is a 4 YEAR practical, hands-on apprenticeship where you’ll be working towards a level 3 Science Maintenance Technician qualification through South Durham Training.
For more information see:
Your studies are fully funded by GSK, and through your day-day work you’ll have lots of opportunities to apply your theoretical knowledge in a real-world manufacturing environment.
Other perks include:
Eligibility for NUS Extra card providing you with discounts to many high street and online outlets.
Access to NxtGen – a social group where you can connect with other GSK apprentices nationally & internationally
Access to healthcare and well-being programmes
Employee recognition programs, which reward exceptional achievements
A buddy &/or mentor who will help you to prepare for joining GSK and who will be there to offer support and guidance throughout your apprenticeship.
Apply now
Please note we will update you regarding your application by the end of February 2024, if you have any questions please contact:
Assessment centres for shortlisted candidates will be held between February and April 2024.
Need help with your application?
Please email us at and let us know how we can help you.
You don’t need to have any previous work experience to be successful. We’re looking for candidates who are motivated to learn and who are excited to develop practical, hands-on engineering and problem solving skills.
Top tips for your application
Once you’ve completed our short online application form, you will be invited to an online video interview. During this, we will ask you to tell us why you think our programme is a good fit for you and how your skills and interests will help you to succeed at GSK.
To help you prepare, we wanted to share some top tips to bear in mind while you’re answering the interview questions! Our Apprentices need:
An interest in, and motivation for becoming a multi-skilled Engineering Technician – you don’t need to have had any prior work experience, but you’ll need to tell us why you think this practical apprenticeship is for you. You may have interests, hobbies or experience that show you have a practical side – perhaps specific practical projects or subjects at school or college that you enjoyed; clubs that you’ve been part of; work experience or extracurricular activities with friends or family or volunteering, charity or community work that you want to tell us about. Your reasons will be personal to you, and we look forward to hearing about these during the application process.
Communication skills – you’ll meet and work with lots of different people across the site so you’ll need to be able to listen to others as well as be open and honest and respectful in your communication. You can expect the same respect from others.
An ability to work within a team – you will have lots of your own tasks &/or projects to work on through the apprenticeship. You’ll also need to be able work well with other people & consider the impact of your work and actions on other people too.
Ability to follow instructions / Personal responsibility – it is critical that you can follow work instructions and health & safety guidelines at all times – to keep you and your colleagues safe whilst ensuring the highest quality of the products that reach our patients. Don’t worry, you’ll get training on all of these when you start
A focus on quality (right first time) and problem solving – we’ll teach you how to safely work with manufacturing machinery and documentation tools. As you develop in your role you’ll need to take a logical approach to problem solving whilst seeking opportunities to improve quality, speed and/or efficiency.
Ability to balance your work and study time – you’ll have the best of both worlds – a great start to your working career in a great industry and gain a nationally recognized Engineering Technician qualification. You’ll need to be able to manage your time and workload, and to stay motivated and committed when facing challenges. Rest assured, you’ll get lots of support from your manager and your teams as well as your college tutors through your Apprenticeship.
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Why Us?
GSK is a global biopharma company with a special purpose – to unite science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together – so we can positively impact the health of billions of people and deliver stronger, more sustainable shareholder returns – as an organization where people can thrive. Getting ahead means preventing disease as well as treating it, and we aim to positively impact the health of 2.5 billion people by the end of 2030.
Our success absolutely depends on our people. While getting ahead of disease together is about our ambition for patients and shareholders, it’s also about making GSK a place where people can thrive. We want GSK to be a workplace where everyone can feel a sense of belonging and thrive as set out in our Equal and Inclusive Treatment of Employees policy. We’re committed to being more proactive at all levels so that our workforce reflects the communities we work and hire in, and our GSK leadership reflects our GSK workforce.
As an Equal Opportunity Employer, we are open to all talent. In the US, we also adhere to Affirmative Action principles. This ensures that all qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment without regard to neurodiversity, race/ethnicity, colour, national origin, religion, gender, pregnancy, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, age, disability, genetic information, military service, covered/protected veteran status or any other federal, state or local protected class*(*US only).
We believe in an agile working culture for all our roles. If flexibility is important to you, we encourage you to explore with our hiring team what the opportunities are.
Should you require any adjustments to our process to assist you in demonstrating your strengths and capabilities contact us on or 0808 234 4391. Please note should your enquiry not relate to adjustments, we will not be able to support you through these channels
As you apply, we will ask you to share some personal information which is entirely voluntary. We want to have an opportunity to consider a diverse pool of qualified candidates and this information will assist us in meeting that objective and in understanding how well we are doing against our inclusion and diversity ambitions. We would really appreciate it if you could take a few moments to complete it. Rest assured, Hiring Managers do not have access to this information and we will treat your information confidentially.
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Expected salary:
Location: Barnard Castle, County Durham
Job date: Sun, 03 Dec 2023 02:37:14 GMT
