Meet - MBDA

MBDA are a leading company in the defence industry. We support our nations by delivering essential military capabilities, both for today and the future. Our apprenticeships focus on business, engineering, software and manufacturing. As part of the programme, you’ll move around the company in rotational placements, where you will gain a wider understanding of what we do, build a network within the organisation and define your future career with us. In addition to being recognised as one of the UK’s Best Places to Work (Glassdoor, 2022), MBDA was awarded Gold status by the 5% Club in response to our commitments to workplace learning programmes.

Skills Apprenticeship Details Locations How to apply What our apprentices do Behind the scenes Related Resources Where to go next

Skills we look for

What makes us a great employer

Annual Leave

As an apprentice, you will receive 25 days of paid annual leave per calendar year, in addition to all statutory and public holidays.

You can also enjoy more time off by purchasing up to an additional five days’ holiday through payroll, whilst making tax and National Insurance savings, spreading the cost over 12 months.

Discounts & Vouchers

We have a discounts platform for employees that includes a wide range of features, including discounts, instant vouchers, reloadable cards, easy saver cards, cashback, and a Wellbeing Centre.

Employees can also make donations to up to five charities each month, with full tax relief on all donations.

Our Employee Assistance Programme

Our employees’ wellbeing is our priority. That’s why everyone at MBDA UK can access free, independent, confidential advice on a range of financial, personal and workplace issues, available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Employees have access to:

Short-term counselling (which includes up to 8 structured face-to-face, telephone or virtual sessions).
Voluntary Private Medical Insurance – Private Medical Insurance offers three healthcare plans to suit your individual requirements for you and your family.

Our Networks

MBDA has a wide range of employee-led networks available for all to join. These include:

Pride at MBDA
Charity Challenge
Neurodiversity
Women in Engineering Community
And many more.

When you join, you will receive information about our networks and how to get involved.

We're ready to support and develop you towards our career goals

You will be assigned a buddy. Your buddy will be your point of contact within your team and can answer any questions you may have, from “What is the dress code?” to “What day do we get paid?”

Apprenticeships Details

Apprenticeships at MBDA

Our apprenticeship schemes start each September and last for 4 years. They provide you with a platform to study, work on exciting projects and make a valuable impact with the work you do, all while earning a salary starting at £18,000, with a £3,000 joining bonus paid in your first month’s salary.

You’ll work at one of our MBDA sites and study for your qualification via day release at university or college. We also organise bespoke training courses to further enhance and improve your skill set.

There will be plenty of opportunities for you to develop

Our Level 3 Apprenticeships

If you love managing tasks or getting hands-on, then these roles are for you.

Project Control and Planning:

Qualification: Project Controls Technician
Locations: Stevenage

Manufacturing Operator

Qualification: Level 3 Engineering Fitter
Locations: Bolton and Stevenage

Finance

Qualification: Assistant Accountant Level 3 progressing to Professional Accounting/Taxation Technician Level 4
Locations: Bristol, Bolton and Stevenage

Each of our apprenticeships has different entry criteria. Our advanced apprenticeships will typically need x5 GCSEs.

Make sure you pay special attention to the requirements on the job adverts, as we will tell you here how many GCSEs and UCAS points each of the apprenticeships needs, and which subjects you will need them in.

Our Higher Apprenticeships

If you’re interested in Engineering, then come and learn all about General Engineering or focus on Mechanical Engineering.

General Engineering

Qualification: Engineering Manufacturing Technician Level 4 Diploma
Locations: Stevenage

Each of our apprenticeships has different entry criteria. Our higher (Level 4) apprenticeships will typically need x5 GCSEs and 96 UCAS points

Our Degree Apprenticeships

We have a range of Engineering, Software and Business apprenticeships for you to pick from.

Mechanical Engineering

Qualification: BEng (hons) Mechanical Engineering
Locations: Stevenage

Electrical Engineering

Qualification: BEng (hons) Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Locations: Stevenage

Business Management

Qualification: BA (hons) Business and Management
Locations: Stevenage and Bolton

Software

Qualification: BSc (hons) Digital and Technology Solutions
Locations: Bristol, Bolton and Stevenage

Each of our apprenticeships has different entry criteria. Our degree (Level 6) apprenticeships will typically need x5 GCSEs and 120 UCAS points.

Work Experience

We’re proud to support the development of young people and offer a selection of work experience programmes to suit individuals in different circumstances.

With plenty of opportunity for hands-on learning and the chance to build skills that will benefit you in any career path, it’s a great way to discover your potential.

Whether you are a student looking for work experience or currently not in education, training or full-time employment, aged between 17 – 25, look at our programmes here.

3locations Locations

Applying for our Apprenticeships

Start
1

Once you have chosen the apprenticeship you would like to apply for, you will need to create an account with a username and password.
2

Our application form contains a few factual questions, some questions relating to the role you have applied for and a section for you to tell us all about you!

You can apply for more than one role at a time, so long as you can demonstrate that you have the skills to also do another role. Be careful, though, applying for lots of different roles that require lots of different skills will only weaken your application overall.

You can log in with the same username and password that you created when you applied the first time around.
3

Next in our process is part one of our online strengths assessment, completely tailored to our business and early careers schemes. After completing our assessment, you’ll receive a personalised report.

If you’ve applied for more than one role with us, you’ll only need to complete this assessment once.
4

Part two of our online assessments includes three video-recorded tasks, which are authentic work scenario-based activities you could be doing on your programme. We refer to these as job simulations.
5

If you are successful with your application and online assessments, you will be invited to our strength-based assessment centre, which is a half-day virtual experience! You’ll get to work on a range of tasks, meet current programme members and people from the department you have applied for.

All candidates receive feedback on their performance.
6

We’ll call you within a week of your assessment day to talk through your feedback and the finer details of your offer, as well as next steps.
End

Start

Create an account

Once you have chosen the apprenticeship you would like to apply for, you will need to create an account with a username and password.

Submit an application

Our application form contains a few factual questions, some questions relating to the role you have applied for and a section for you to tell us all about you!

You can apply for more than one role at a time, so long as you can demonstrate that you have the skills to also do another role. Be careful, though, applying for lots of different roles that require lots of different skills will only weaken your application overall.

You can log in with the same username and password that you created when you applied the first time around.

Online assessment - Part one

Next in our process is part one of our online strengths assessment, completely tailored to our business and early careers schemes. After completing our assessment, you’ll receive a personalised report.

If you’ve applied for more than one role with us, you’ll only need to complete this assessment once.

Online assessment - Part two

Part two of our online assessments includes three video-recorded tasks, which are authentic work scenario-based activities you could be doing on your programme. We refer to these as job simulations.

Assessment Centre

If you are successful with your application and online assessments, you will be invited to our strength-based assessment centre, which is a half-day virtual experience! You’ll get to work on a range of tasks, meet current programme members and people from the department you have applied for.

All candidates receive feedback on their performance.

Offer

We’ll call you within a week of your assessment day to talk through your feedback and the finer details of your offer, as well as next steps.

End

Need some extra support?

At MBDA, we are committed to ensuring everyone has a fair and equal opportunity to apply regardless of their abilities. We want everyone who joins us to feel welcomed, included and able to achieve their highest potential.

We value and respect our people and their unique abilities, that’s why we are proud to be Disability Confident Committed and a founding member of Neurodiversity in Business.

If you have a disability, are neurodivergent, or have a condition that you believe may affect your performance during your selection process, we’re happy to discuss reasonable adjustments with you.

If you’re successful in your application and are offered an apprenticeship at MBDA, we will work with you to make sure you have the adjustments you need to succeed in your role, with support from your line manager, Client-facing HR and Occupational Health teams. In addition to this, you can access the Access to Work grant to pay for practical support.

What our apprentices do!

“MBDA provided me with a buddy when I joined to help me get settled into my new job. They also provided me with a mentor to help plan my development in the future. My mentor has been invaluable in helping navigate my role and showing me how I can reach my potential here”

Ben

Software Engineer Degree Apprentice

Level 6-7 (Degree)

“I have been surprised at the sheer vastness of departments in MBDA and how they differ so greatly. I love how much I am learning! I know for sure that I would not be gaining the same skills that I have if I was just at university or if I was working an entry level position elsewhere.”

Elizabeth

Business Management Degree Apprentice

Level 6-7 (Degree)

“As an apprentice, almost everything undertaken at work is part of the learning experience! As well as the internal training courses and digital learning that can be undertaken, MBDA is set up to encourage employee development.”

Marcus

Business and Management Apprentice

Level 6-7 (Degree)