Design and Development Engineer Degree Apprentice

What will the apprentice be doing?

• Research and develop ideas for existing and new products, technologies, components, processes and the systems used to make them.
• Work to improve the performance and efficiency of existing products.
• Provide support to the new business and vehicle-launch team and work to ensure that all aspects of CAD design are created to fully meet the high specifications set.
• Designing systems, processes, methodologies as well as component and vehicle designs to enhance the overall vehicle performance for the customer and environment.
• Transforming concepts into prototypes for testing, validating and improvement; ultimately for volume production.
• Designing to meet costs, timing and quality requirements.
• Ensuring the success of the design from inception through to delivery into manufacture, using innovative engineering skills to ensure seamless integration.
• Research concept ideas to ascertain whether new developments and innovations would work and be cost effective.
• Analyse the Engineering and Project input in order to interrogate it, reach an agreement and integrate it formally in a Design solution.
• Produce design ideas, based on research, into technical plans for prototypes using computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-assisted engineering (CAE) software.
• Analyse the design proposals and the technical information in order to identify the issues arising during product development, defining and implementing adequate solutions in order to reach a feasible proposal with a high form and aesthetic quality.
• Attend design reviews to present design ideas and to discuss and critique alternative design solutions.
• Carry out simulations of products for new and prototype projects using in house software for the customer and provide support and feedback on design.
• Analyse and manage multiple design related issues to identify root cause.
• Modify designs based on the analysis to re-test and analyse until design meets specification requirements.
• Make and track design changes on existing products.
• Control of Bill of Materials (BoM), CAD Models and Engineering Drawings.
• Keep up with current and developing engineering trends.
• Undertake special projects as required.
• Contribute to continuous improvement activities.
• Quality control of work by appropriate reviews.
• Support technical/production staff.
• Achieve goals within commercial budget.
• Conduct benchmarking studies to determine best practices/designs and future trends.

What training will the apprentice take and what qualification will the apprentice get at the end?

• You will be required to attend Sheffield Hallam University on day release
• The degree award is BEng (Hons) Mechanical Engineering

What is the expected career progression after this apprenticeship?

We regularly offer our apprentices a full-time contract at the end of their training.

Requirements and prospects

Desired skills and personal qualities

Communication skills, IT skills, Attention to detail, Organisation skills, Problem solving skills, Administrative skills, Number skills, Analytical skills, Logical, Team working, Creative

Qualifications

A Level or equivalent Maths, Science or Engineering (Grade BBC / Distinction Merit Merit) Essential

Things to consider

You will be required to complete extra-curricular activity outside of your normal work and education to enable completion of your development plan, examples include attending residential training and development weeks.