Apprenticeship
IT Apprenticeships at IBM are all about picking up new skills – and lots of them. It’s three year’s of brilliant training, loads of exposure and the kind of experience you simply couldn’t get anywhere else. If you’ve decided to dive straight into the world of work after college – and if you’re as fascinated as we are by technology and how it can change business – it’s one of the best learning experiences out there.
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What makes the scheme so great?
- You’ll gain a great qualification: the Advanced Apprenticeship for IT Professionals.
- You’ll be part of one of the world’s leading technology companies – and have one of the world’s most recognisable brands on your CV.
- You’ll learn from some seriously sharp people – people who’ve pushed technology to its limits and used it to do some amazing things, like combating climate change or bringing clean water to the third world.
- You’ll work with some great clients, too – big names in virtually every industry you could think of.
Job roles
Technical Solution Specialist
You will develop proof of concepts and design, develop, build, test and implement systems to solve our clients' business and IT problems. As a Technical Solution Specialist, you will be a hands-on professional and you will have the opportunity to develop an in-depth understanding of our products, offerings and services.
Product Support Specialist
As a Product Support Specialist, you will provide warranty and post-warranty support (including services) on IBM and non-IBM hardware and software products. You will be either working at customer locations (resolving problems on their hardware products and systems) or in one of our hardware or software support centres. You will be diagnosing problems and providing support and assistance directly to our clients and our field-force of Service Representatives and Customer Engineers.
This is a role for people who are practical, logical, technologically minded and fascinated with how machines and systems work - and who are keen to fix them when they do not work!
Great salary and benefits
As well as £15,000 a year (pro rata), you’ll get a flexible benefits package too, which lets you change the benefits you get to suit your lifestyle and personal circumstances. So it could include anything from the following:
- company pension
- private healthcare
- travel insurance
- discount bicycle schemes
We have a 'vacation marketplace' where employees buy and sell holiday – which means you could potentially have up to 35 days’ holiday a year.
Through the IBM Rewards programme, you can save money and earn cash-back at more than 1300 stores, including Apple, Tesco and John Lewis.
A ready-made social life
Before you join, you’ll meet and chat with other future apprentices on our Facebook group. It’s even better when you get here. There’s
- a dedicated IBM social club offering everything from discounted weekends away to theatre and theme park trips
- sporting teams
- student networking functions
- dedicated graduate and student newsletters
Support & Training
How we support you
- For the day-to-day things, you’ll have a Task Manager who’ll help you with new tasks, manage your workload and give you the opportunity to get involved with new projects.
- You’ll also have a Professional Development Manager looking after your ongoing development and your future career plans: they’ll sit down with you to develop a plan for your year that sets you objectives and includes all the training you’ll need.
- During the year you'll have regular reviews with both your task manager and your professional development manager to assess how you’re doing.
- You’ll also have two IBM Buddies. You can talk to these professionals about absolutely anything: they are there to support you in anyway they can, and it’s good to be able to chat to somebody outside your own team sometimes!
Your training and development
The IBM Apprenticeship scheme lasts for 3 years. We’ll give you the opportunity to continue your learning to achieve the Advanced Apprenticeship for IT Professionals qualification in the first 18 months, leading up to Higher Apprenticeship qualifications and more. The initial qualification consists of: OCR Level 3 Diplomas in ICT Professional Competence and in ICT Systems & Principles followed by Level 4 Diplomas in Professional Competence for IT & Telecoms Professionals and in Computing and Systems Development.
Your training starts with a two week induction which will help you understand how IBM works and how we operate. Don’t worry, you’ll be in good company, taking part in valuable team building exercises with other apprentices - so this is a great chance to get to know each other!
After that, it’s all about 2 areas:
- Business and technical skills training, which helps you get better at doing your job and attain further professional qualifications
- Personal skills training, which can be anything that you feel would help you with your career progression in IBM– and it’s entirely controlled by you.
What we look for
Hopefully by now you’ll have a good idea of whether a job at IBM’s right for you. So, are you right for IBM – and how do you apply? Here’s what you’ll need.
- To be eligible to apply, you must have at least 8 GCSE’s at grade C or above including Maths and English, and at least 2 A-levels at grade C or above, or the equivalent:
BTEC National Certification at DM (Double Merit) or above
BTEC National Diploma at MPP (Merit, Pass, Pass) or above - You must also be eligible to work in the UK.
- You don’t need any work experience though so don’t worry.
- Also, don't forget to attach your completed CV template – we can’t accept your application without it!
Whichever career path you choose to follow at IBM, we can offer you incredible, memorable times. You will have a great social network, gain invaluable experience in the field of your choice, learn new skills and develop expert knowledge – at one of the most successful companies in history.