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- Service and repair manufacturing equipment in a range of industries
- Practical and sometimes physical, hands-on work
- Progress into engineering roles with further training and study
As an engineering maintenance technician you'll usually do either preventative (planned) or emergency maintenance.
DAY-TO-DAY DUTIES
In preventative maintenance, your day-to-day duties may include:
- Organising routine servicing schedules
- Allocating work to a team of fitters
- Checking and calibrating instruments to make sure they're accurate
- Fitting new parts as required or as part of a regular replacement rota
- Carrying out quality inspections on jobs
Emergency maintenance tasks may include:
- Responding immediately to equipment breakdowns
- Fixing faults on site or arranging for replacement equipment to be installed
- Keeping production managers informed of progress
- Organising teams or individuals to make sure that 24-hour cover is available
DAY-TO-DAY ENVIRONMENT
You could work in a factory, on a construction site or at a manufacturing plant. Your working environment may be noisy and outdoors some of the time and you may need to wear safety clothing.
You'll need
This role requires practical and technical skills, ability in maths, science and IT, an understanding of engineering drawings and principles, the ability to manage a varied workload, and problem-solving skills.
There are no set entry requirements but you can take a college course, which would teach you some of the skills needed in the job. Relevant courses include Level 2 Certificate in Mechanical Engineering, Level 2 Certificate in Electrical and Electronic Engineering Technology, Level 3 Diploma in Equipment Maintenance Engineering and Level 3 Diploma in Engineering.
You could also do an engineering technician advanced apprenticeship, which could be used to work in different industries, or you could do an intermediate or advanced engineering apprenticeship for your particular industry, for example aviation, manufacturing or rail.
Alternatively, you could start as an engineering craftworker and become a technician through on the job training.
You could also do a foundation degree or higher national diploma in engineering before applying for a job as a trainee technician.
CAREER PROSPECTS
You could eventually qualify as an engineer in your particular field, like mechanical or electrical engineering. You could also move into technical sales, maintenance team management and contract management.