NDT apprenticeship scheme

Over the last year, the NDT apprenticeship scheme has undergone a massive change with one major NDT apprenticeship provider no longer providing the Level 2 (NDT Operator), Level 3 (NDT Engineering Technician) and Level 6 (NDT Engineer) programmes. Several apprenticeship providers have now picked up the delivery for these apprenticeship programmes and are in full swing providing delivery and continuing to transfer apprentices who have not yet restarted.

With this new delivery in mind, I thought it was pertinent to provide an update on the key numbers and statistics of the NDT apprenticeships to showcase what the landscape of the future looks like.

The NDT Operator apprenticeship has seven candidates enrolled, six of whom are male and one of whom is female, whilst the NDT Engineering Technician apprenticeship has 63 candidates enrolled, 60 of whom are male and three of whom are female. The average age of the 63 apprentices is 19 years, with the youngest being 16 and the oldest currently on the programme being 40.

The graph on the right shows the potential completion rates for the NDT Operator and the NDT Engineering Technician apprenticeships over the next few years, which can all now be conducted through the BINDT end-point assessment service.

The key statistics show that one of the main points to take away is that the apprenticeships will create 196 NDT certificates for industry, in various methods and certification schemes. In the next update, I will focus on the key statistics for the NDT Engineer apprenticeship scheme.

Please note that the views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not represent the views of Lavender International NDT or BINDT.

Sam Cunningham is with Lavender International NDT and is a member of BINDT’s Education & Professional Development Committee, which oversees the development of the NDT apprenticeships.

Employers in England looking to recruit an apprentice can find up-to-date guidance at: www.gov.uk/recruit-apprentice

Details of the current apprenticeship vacancies in England are available at: www.gov.uk/apply-apprenticeship