Information for school leavers and potential apprentices, and about Welbeck College
School Leavers Whether involved in combat, peacekeeping duties or the provision of humanitarian aid following natural disasters, the Armed Forces depend on the support and expertise provided by our civilian staff. We would like this to be you.
The MOD offers many varied opportunities for school leavers throughout the UK where you can make a real difference to defence. The number of different careers are too many to list in full, but they include Personal Secretary, Pay Clerk, Commercial Officer, Project and Admin Support, Finance Clerk, Commodity Manager, Course Administrator and Recruitment and Marketing, along with many others.
All these roles are absolutely vital to our mission in Defence – giving you unique vision and access to some of the most interesting work in government. Perhaps you could be a Commercial Officer buying vehicles for the Army. Perhaps you could be a Personal Secretary to a Senior Civil Servant who decides the latest Defence Policy. Perhaps you could be a Commodity Manager routeing supplies to a recent disaster area.
But we don't just focus on your current job.
We place an enormous emphasis on your future. Every single person in the organisation is given comprehensive training and development, including the opportunity to develop cross-disciplines.
As the MOD is so large it is entirely possible to change career direction, perhaps even study for professional qualifications, whilst retaining your status and similar conditions of employment – including your pension and leave allowance. Examples would be engineers moving into personnel or accountancy, and administrators becoming graphic designers or logisticians.
This is in addition to a number of Management Development Schemes aimed at the full spectrum of the MOD workforce, designed to help you fill your true potential.
If you are at school, you may wish to see our schools site 'Defence Dynamics'. It is not a recruitment website, but it contains a wealth of information on the MOD and the how the Defence Schools Presentation Team can help pupils studying citizenship.
Staff carrying out tests at the Institute of Naval Medicine
Apprentices MOD and its agencies offer Craft and Technician Advanced Apprenticeships in a range of trades across Land, Sea, Air systems and Construction Disciplines. The types and numbers of apprenticeships available each year are dependant on the projected business needs of individual establishments.
Apprenticeships generally commence in August/September each year and last between 32 and 42 months. Each training establishment will set any prior qualification requirement dependant on their business need.
The MOD engineering apprenticeship is fully in line with the Government Advanced/Modern Apprenticeship scheme. Successful candidates will therefore receive, on completion, the MOD Deed/Indenture of apprenticeship and an Advanced/Modern Apprenticeship certificate from the awarding body.
Welbeck – The Defence 6th Form College Welbeck College in Nottinghamshire is an MOD sponsored sixth form college that invests in the future of young people who have a strong desire to take up a science or engineering based career in the Armed Forces or the Civil Service.
Welbeck has provided the Army with many of its future Technical Officers for over fifty years. In 2004 the College became a quad-Service institution, admitting students with a career ambition to join The Royal Navy, The Army, The Royal Air Force or to become Ministry of Defence Civil Service engineers.
The College has become one of the UK's top sixth form colleges and has an outstanding academic reputation. It offers a unique programme of personal, physical and intellectual development which provides our students with a rounded education specifically designed to meet the needs of today's modern technical Armed Forces.
The programme does not end after a two-year A-level programme: the MOD continues to monitor and support students through university and on to professional training with their respective Armed Service or within the Ministry of Defence Civil Service.