

Required qualifications
5 GCSE’s (or equivalent) at 4/C or above including Science, Maths and English.
Length of studies
3 years
Location
Split between our North Wales training centre and Wind Farm site location
£15,472 rising to £23,412 throughout programme
The RWE Wind Turbine Technician apprenticeship provides a fantastic opportunity to enter the growing world of renewable energy, and to earn whilst you learn.
The course offers a comprehensive and well supported learning programme, with a blend of classroom-based learning and time on site working with our technicians.
Our Wind Turbine Technicians work in teams dedicated to specific offshore wind farms. As part of your apprenticeship, you will learn how these teams operate, and about the many aspects of wind turbine maintenance. It is a rewarding job that allows you to work on highly advanced machinery in a challenging environment. You could be working at sea, in all weathers and at height, using heavy, complex mechanical and electrical equipment.
Academically, completion of the programme will see you achieve:
After this, you will be well equipped to become a part of our technician teams, where your hard work will ensure our wind farms continue to deliver power to households and business.
All apprentices of the RWE Renewables UK Wind Turbine Technician Apprenticeship will be expected to study full time for the first 2 years at Llandrillo College, Rhos-on-Sea in North Wales during term time, before being deployed at an offshore windfarm for the 3rd year for hands-on experience.
RWE first established a relationship with Coleg Llandrillo in 2005 when the earliest wind farms in North Wales were constructed. It was our local college of choice for our wind turbine apprenticeship training programme, where over 30 apprentices have now successfully been trained. In 2020 we made the decision to make Coleg Llandrillo our national training hub and recruited a further 8 apprentices. This means that apprentices trained at the college now have the opportunity to work on our wind farms both in the local region and right across the UK. Coleg Llandrillo have also recently had planning permission approved for a new engineering centre with dedicated wind turbine training facilities, expected to be open by September 2023.
Galloper Offshore Wind Farm is a 353MW site, located 30km off the coast of Suffolk, close to its sister project Greater Gabbard Wind Farm. Each year Galloper Offshore Wind Farm’s 56 turbines generate enough green electricity to power the equivalent of more than 444,000 UK homes.
A 60-strong team operates and maintains the wind farm from a state-of-the-art, purpose-built Operations & Maintenance facility in Harwich International Port, with crew transfer vessels travelling to the wind farm site daily (weather permitting). The operations & maintenance (O&M) facility houses a control room for managing the wind farm 24/7, a purpose-built pontoon for the crew transfer vessels, warehousing and office facilities, and a gym. The O&M team includes wind turbine technicians, engineers, marine coordinators as well as management and administrative staff.
The 504MW offshore wind farm has been in operation since 2012, generating enough low-carbon renewable energy each year to power the equivalent of over 400,000 UK homes. Greater Gabbard Offshore Wind Farm is a joint venture between SSE Renewables (50%) and RWE Renewables (50%). SSE Renewables operates the offshore wind farm.
Lowestoft was selected as the Operations and Maintenance base in 2009, bringing 100 jobs to the area. All 140 turbines were commissioned and have been producing power since 2012.
Operational since 2018, Rampion Offshore Wind Farm comprises 116 turbines on a 70 square kilometre site located between 13 and 20 kilometres off the Sussex coast in the English Channel. The 400MW site generates enough green electricity to power around 409,000 UK homes, equivalent to almost half of the households in Sussex.
The operation and maintenance of the wind farm are carried out from a purpose-built facility located on the East Quay at Newhaven Port. This is home to a team of 65, including apprentices, wind turbine technicians, engineers, marine workers and administrative staff, who manage the day-to-day running of the wind farm. To date, Rampion has taken on 10 apprentices, 4 of them already fully trained technicians. Eventually, around 25 per cent of Rampion’s technicians will have been trained as apprentices.
Triton Knoll is an 857MW offshore wind farm, located off the east coast of England. It lies approximately 20 miles east off the coast of Lincolnshire, and 28 miles north off the coast of north Norfolk. It's a nationally significant UK infrastructure project which is operated and maintained from a purpose built facility located on Grimsby's Royal Dock.
The 9.5MW turbines are amongst the most powerful operating anywhere in the world, and capable of energising a typical UK household for more than 29 hours with just a single turn of the blades. Each turbine has a greater swept area than the London Eye (turbine 187m, London Eye 120m), and measures 187 metres from the base of the tower to the tip of the blades.
Triton Knoll already employes 3 former apprentices as full-time technicians, and has 6 apprentices currently progressing through their training at the site. During their first year of training, a recent group of TK apprentices kept an 'Apprenticeship Blog' which can be found here.
If you feel that you have further questions regarding the Offshore technician Apprenticeship, please contact either of the below RWE Renewables Recruitment Specialists: