Northern looking for up to 16 engineering apprentices to work at depots across the North of England

The apprentices will be based at one of five ‘TrainCare Centres’ across the North of England, including: Heaton in Newcastle, Botanic Gardens in Hull, Neville Hill in Leeds, Newton Heath in Manchester and Allerton in Liverpool.

The apprentice roles offer a starting salary of £15,817 per annum, rising to £18,963 per annum during the apprenticeship - and benefits including free train travel on the Northern network.

Whilst the vacancies are open to all, the operator is targeting its recruitment campaign at school and college-leavers (aged 16-22) with a minimum of five GCSEs including English, maths and science.

The focus on young people is designed to help nurture the next generation of railway engineers and engineering leaders.

For more information and details of how to apply, click here. The closing date for applications is Sunday, 11 December.

Jack Commandeur, engineering director at Northern, said: “These roles are a great opportunity for anyone interested in engineering to join a team of experts maintaining and developing our diverse fleet of trains. These roles will help develop the talents of budding engineers across the North of England who are looking for a career that speaks to their passion for science and technology.”

Alexandra Widdop, one of Northern’s engineering apprentices at their Neville Hill depot in West Yorkshire, said: “I’m in the third year of my apprenticeship and I love it. I’ve learnt so much from the team and I’ve had chance to work on trains across the fleet. If you’re interested in solving problems and embracing new technology – this is a great industry to work in.”

Northern’s engineering team has recently unveiled the concept train for operator’s Intelligent Trains programme, a project designed to make journeys by rail safer and more efficient. Amongst other software, it uses the same LIDAR horizon scanning cameras as used by autonomous driving road vehicles and that NASA used to map the surface of the moon. You can find out more about the Intelligent Trains programme here.

Northern is the second largest train operator in the UK, with nearly 2,000 services a day to more than 500 stations across the North of England.