Digital and Technology Solutions Degree Apprentice

Summary

Our 5-year Digital and Technology Solutions Apprenticeship offers an exciting opportunity to kickstart your career in software engineering. You’ll work on real projects while studying for a BSc Honours Degree in Digital and Technology Solutions with the University of Exeter– combining academic learning with industry experience.

Wage

£23,776 a year

Training course

Digital and technology solutions professional (level 6)

Hours

Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm

35 hours a week

Start date

Wednesday 1 September 2027

Duration

5 years

Positions available

2

Work

Most of your apprenticeship is spent working. You’ll learn on the job by getting hands-on experience.

What you'll do at work

• From day one, you’ll be part of our Mission Systems business, helping us develop innovative software that supports national security and defence. From cutting edge development of machine learning models to intelligent sensor technologies able to analyse the electromagnetic environment, our software needs to be proven, reliable and fully integrated
• You’ll work in design offices, laboratories and workshops, contributing to live projects in areas such as submarine systems, communications and security, command and control and electronic warfare. Whether you're helping to build an audio console or supporting software for a world-class ship, you'll be involved in the full development lifecycle – from concept through to testing
• This programme offers the opportunity to develop skills across both traditional and modern software development practices, including Agile ways of working and AI-assisted development techniques used within the defence sector. Working alongside experienced professionals, you'll gain hands-on experience, build your technical expertise, and develop the skills needed to contribute to real-world projects from the start
• These skills will enable you to contribute to the delivery of innovative digital technologies that help keep people, assets and information safe – supporting our shared purpose of creating a safe and secure world, together

Where you'll work

You can select which locations you want to apply for in your application on Find an apprenticeship.

This apprenticeship is available in these locations:

• Ashton House, Ashton Vale Road, Bristol, BS3 2HQ
• Hms Drake, Plymouth, PL2 2BG

Training

Apprenticeships include time away from working for specialist training. You’ll study to gain professional knowledge and skills.

Training provider

UNIVERSITY OF EXETER

Training course

Digital and technology solutions professional (level 6)

What you'll learn

Course contents

• Analyse a business problem to identify the role of digital and technology solutions.
• Identify risks, determine mitigation strategies and opportunities for improvement in a digital and technology solutions project.
• Analyse a business problem in order to specify an appropriate digital and technology solution.
• Initiate, design, code, test and debug a software component for a digital and technology solution.
• Apply relevant standard processes, methods, techniques and tools. For example, ISO Standards, Waterfall, Agile in a digital and technology solution project.
• Manage digital and technology solutions projects. For example, identifying and resolving deviations from specification, applying appropriate Project Management methodologies.
• Work effectively within teams, leading on appropriate digital technology solution activities.
• Apply relevant organisational theories. For example, change management principles, marketing approaches, strategic practice, and IT service management to a digital and technology solutions project.
• Apply relevant security and resilience techniques to a digital and technology solution. For example, risk assessments, mitigation strategies.
• Initiate, design, implement and debug a data product for a digital and technology solution.
• Determine and use appropriate data analysis techniques. For example, Text, Statistical, Diagnostic or Predictive Analysis to assess a digital and technology solutions.
• Plan, design and manage simple computer networks with an overall focus on the services and capabilities that network infrastructure solutions enable in an organisational context.
• Report effectively to colleagues and stakeholders using the appropriate language and style, to meet the needs of the audience concerned.
• Research, investigate, and evaluate innovative technologies or approaches in the development of a digital and technology solution.
• Apply relevant legal, ethical, social and professional standards to a digital and technology solution.
• Identify and define software engineering problems that are non-routine and incompletely specified.
• Provide recommendations as to the most appropriate software engineering solution.
• Use appropriate analysis methods, approaches and techniques in software engineering projects to deliver an outcome that meets requirements.
• Implement software engineering projects using appropriate software engineering methods, approaches and techniques.
• Respond to changing priorities and problems arising within software engineering projects by making revised recommendations, and adapting plans as necessary, to fit the scenario being investigated.
• Determine, refine, adapt and use appropriate software engineering methods, approaches and techniques to evaluate software engineering project outcomes.
• Evaluate learning points arising from software engineering work undertaken on a project including use of methods, analysis undertaken, selection of approach and the outcome achieved, in order to identify both lessons learnt and recommendations for improvements to future projects.
• Extend and update software development knowledge with evidence from professional and academic sources by undertaking appropriate research to inform best practice and lead improvements in the organisation.
• Analyse client needs and determine how to advise them strategically through improved business processes, new ideas, or technology solutions.
• Effectively communicate value add to the client through a variety of media. For example, presentations, written reports, Storytelling in a professional setting through performing socio-technical process improvements in a range of environments.
• Make evidence based recommendations taking into account risks, costs, and benefits.
• Participate in walk-throughs for Information Technologies, to identify, document and evaluate key risks within a client’s organisation.
• Perform stakeholder analysis to identify, determine and deepen understanding of system requirements and develop client relationships.
• Effect change within an organisation through evaluation of a new system, process or initiative.
• Ensure legal and ethical requirements are accommodated in the development of digital and technology solutions.
• Evaluate the  success of new systems, processes, or initiatives.
• Use requirements elicitation, analysis and documentation to produce an acceptable solution for business problems or further opportunities.
• Conduct Process Analysis, Definition, Mapping and Modelling within a business situation without supervision.
• Produce Use Cases which are of value to all stakeholders of a system.
• Use tools and benchmarking to support modelling and requirements gathering and recommend approaches to team members as required.
• Produce a business case to scope a proposed project including business benefits and recommendations.
• Use products of analysis in the design and development of a system.
• Evaluate the impacts of model selection and how they inter-relate with each other when generating business analytics.
• Recommend and use appropriate software tools to implement Business Analysis tasks and outcomes.
• Discover, identify and analyse security threats, attack techniques and vulnerabilities and recommend mitigation and security controls.
• Undertake security risk assessments for complex systems without direct supervision and propose a remediation strategy relevant to the context of the organisation.
• Recommend improvements to the cyber security approaches of an organisation based on research into future potential cyber threats and considering threat trends.
• Manage cyber security risk.
• Use appropriate cyber security technology, tools and techniques in relation to the risks identified.
• Lead cyber security awareness campaigns and evaluate their effectiveness.
• Analyse cyber security requirements against other design requirements for systems or products, identify conflicting requirements and recommend appropriate solutions with clear explanation of costs and benefits.
• Lead the design and build of systems in accordance with a security case to address organisational challenges.
• Define Data Requirements and perform Data Collection, Data Processing and Data Cleansing.
• Apply different types of Data Analysis, as appropriate, to drive improvements for specific business problems.
• Find, present, communicate and disseminate data analysis outputs effectively and with high impact through creative storytelling, tailoring the message for the audience. Visualise data to tell compelling and actionable narratives by using the best medium for each audience, such as charts, graphs and dashboards.
• Identify barriers to effective analysis encountered both by analysts and their stakeholders within data analysis projects.
• Apply a range of techniques for analysing quantitative data such as data mining, time series forecasting, algorithms, statistics and modelling techniques to identify and predict trends and patterns in data.
• Apply exploratory or confirmatory approaches to analysing data. Validate and and test stability of the results.
• Extract data from a range of sources. For example, databases, web services, open data.
• Analyse in detail large data sets, using a range of industry standard tools and data analysis methods.
• Identify and collate stakeholder needs in relation to computer network requirements, plans and designs.
• Plan, design, document, and develop the relevant elements of a computer network within an organisation or between organisations, taking into account customer requirements (performance, scale), constraints (budget, equipment availability), and define policies for their use.
• Monitor performance and ensure networks are configured correctly and perform as expected by designers or architects. Undertake capacity management and audit of IP addressing and hosted devices.
• Investigate, troubleshoot and resolve data network faults in local and wide area environments, using information from multiple sources, Physically or Remotely by console connection. Recommend and implement short term fixes to restore service and, or, quality of experience and recommend longer term changes to prevent recurrence or reduce impact of future occurrences.
• Implement computer networks from a design including testing and validation. This includes populating variables in configurations, for example, IP addresses and subsequent application of configuration to equipment such as routers, switches, firewalls.
• Secure network systems by establishing and enforcing policies, and defining and monitoring access. Support and administer firewall environments in line with IT security policy.
• Research and evaluate emerging network technologies and assess relevance to current network requirements. Provide an objective opinion on how new features and technologies may be incorporated as required by the organisation.
• Investigate security concerns or attacks. For example, Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS), port scanning, assessing key metrics and indicators, evidencing the chosen steps to mitigate.
• Analyse a business problem to identify the role of digital and technology solutions.
• Identify risks, determine mitigation strategies and opportunities for improvement in a digital and technology solutions project.
• Analyse a business problem in order to specify an appropriate digital and technology solution.
• Initiate, design, code, test and debug a software component for a digital and technology solution.
• Apply relevant standard processes, methods, techniques and tools. For example, ISO Standards, Waterfall, Agile in a digital and technology solution project.
• Manage digital and technology solutions projects. For example, identifying and resolving deviations from specification, applying appropriate Project Management methodologies.
• Work effectively within teams, leading on appropriate digital technology solution activities.
• Apply relevant organisational theories. For example, change management principles, marketing approaches, strategic practice, and IT service management to a digital and technology solutions project.
• Apply relevant security and resilience techniques to a digital and technology solution. For example, risk assessments, mitigation strategies.
• Initiate, design, implement and debug a data product for a digital and technology solution.
• Determine and use appropriate data analysis techniques. For example, Text, Statistical, Diagnostic or Predictive Analysis to assess a digital and technology solutions.
• Plan, design and manage simple computer networks with an overall focus on the services and capabilities that network infrastructure solutions enable in an organisational context.
• Report effectively to colleagues and stakeholders using the appropriate language and style, to meet the needs of the audience concerned.
• Research, investigate, and evaluate innovative technologies or approaches in the development of a digital and technology solution.
• Apply relevant legal, ethical, social and professional standards to a digital and technology solution.

Training schedule

As part of your apprenticeship, you will study for the BSc (Hons) Digital and Technology Solutions through the University of Exeter.

You’ll complete your studies part-time over four years while gaining hands-on experience in the workplace. In years 1 and 2, you’ll build a strong foundation in digital technologies. In years 3 and 4, you’ll specialise in Software Engineering. During your final year, you’ll work full-time in placements while completing your End Point Assessment.

Your technical training will be supplemented with in-house training courses and soft skill training to further develop your personal and team working skills.

Requirements

Essential qualifications

GCSE in:

• Any Subject (grade C)
• Any Subject (grade C)
• English (grade C)
• Maths (grade C)
• Science (grade C)

A Level in:

• IT (grade C)
• Mathematics-based subject (grade C)

Share if you have other relevant qualifications and industry experience. The apprenticeship can be adjusted to reflect what you already know.

Skills

• Communication skills
• IT skills
• Attention to detail
• Problem solving skills

Other requirements

Many of our programmes are subject to Security Clearance and Trade Control restrictions which mean that your place of birth, nationality, citizenship, or residency you hold or have held may impact which programmes you are eligible for. For this programme, you must be able to achieve and maintain Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) and Security Check (SC) security clearance. For further details, visit GOV.UK and search ‘United Kingdom Security Vetting: clearance levels'.

Under applicable national security legislation, this post may only be occupied by a UK national. This legal requirement is independent of our recruitment policies, and all eligible applicants will be assessed fairly and without discrimination.