Maintenance Technician

1What you'd actually do

• Responding to breakdowns — a machine stops mid-production, and you diagnose whether it's mechanical (a worn bearing, a jammed conveyor), electrical (a tripped drive, a failed sensor) or a control problem, then fix it or arrange a part
• Working through planned preventive maintenance (PPM) jobs — scheduled servicing tasks like lubrication, belt and filter changes, calibration and inspections, usually issued to you as tickets from a CMMS (computerised maintenance management system, essentially a job-tracking database for maintenance)
• Logging what you did: fault found, parts used, time taken, and closing the job on the system — this record-keeping matters more than newcomers expect because it drives spares ordering, reliability analysis and audit compliance
• Following safety procedures before touching anything — lock-out/tag-out (isolating and physically locking off power so equipment can't start while you're inside it), permits to work, risk assessments
• Fault-finding on control systems: reading electrical schematics and P&IDs (pipework and instrumentation diagrams), checking sensors and actuators, and on many sites interrogating a PLC (programmable logic controller — the small industrial computer that runs an automated machine) to see which step it's stuck on
• Working with contractors and suppliers when a job is beyond in-house scope — specialist calibration, lifting equipment inspections, refrigeration work
• Handover at shift change — briefing the incoming team on what's broken, what's been bodged as a temporary fix and what needs doing next
• On some sites, contributing to improvement work: suggesting modifications, changing PPM frequencies where a component keeps failing, or supporting an installation of new equipment

2How graduates get in

• Apprenticeship — this is the most common route into maintenance technician work in the UK generally, though it isn't a graduate route. Advanced and higher apprenticeships in engineering maintenance, mechatronics or electrical engineering produce most of the workforce. Graduates should know this because it shapes the team you'd join and the credibility you'd need to earn.
• Direct entry from an engineering degree or HND/HNC — realistic and reasonably common, particularly with employers who value the theory and are willing to train the hands-on side. Manufacturing, food production, water and energy companies do recruit graduates straight into technician roles.
• Graduate schemes in manufacturing, utilities, rail or FMCG that include a maintenance or reliability rotation — here the technician work is a placement rather than a destination, and the scheme is usually aimed at engineering or asset management roles later. This is common in larger employers.
• Trainee or 'improver' technician roles advertised without a degree requirement — a graduate can apply, and some do, but expect a lower starting wage and be prepared to explain why you want a hands-on role.
• Sponsored degree or degree apprenticeship routes where you're employed as a technician while studying part-time — increasingly available in engineering and rail, though usually entered at 18 rather than post-graduation.
• Armed forces leavers move into this work in large numbers, particularly REME, RAF and Royal Navy technical trades — worth knowing as a graduate because you'll be competing with people who have years of practical fault-finding behind them.

3What employers ask for

• Subject matters here more than in most graduate jobs. Mechanical, electrical, electronic, mechatronic or manufacturing engineering are the obvious fits. Physics or another applied science can work for some employers. A non-technical degree on its own is rarely enough without a practical qualification alongside it.
• Many employers care more about a recognised technical qualification than a degree class — a Level 3 engineering qualification (BTEC, City & Guilds or NVQ), an HNC/HND, or a completed apprenticeship. Degree classification requirements, where they exist at all, are usually 2:2 or above and are far less rigid than in finance or law.
• Electrical roles often need or expect the 18th Edition Wiring Regulations qualification; some sites want specific competencies such as high-voltage authorisation, confined space entry, working at height or IPAF/PASMA for access equipment. Employers frequently fund these after you start.
• Demonstrable hands-on experience is what separates candidates — a year in industry, a summer in a workshop, motorsport or Formula Student, car and motorcycle work, home automation, anything where you've actually held tools and diagnosed a fault. Employers are genuinely wary of graduates who have only ever simulated things.
• A full driving licence is often required, and is essential for mobile roles covering multiple sites.
• Willingness to work shifts. Many maintenance roles are days-and-nights, four-on-four-off or continental shift patterns, because equipment has to be maintained when it isn't running. Some sites are days-only. Check this before applying — it's the single biggest lifestyle factor in the job.

4Skills that matter

5Where it leads

1. Trainee or junior technician while you learn the site and build your competencies and tickets — length varies a lot, from months to a couple of years depending on your starting experience and how complex the plant is.

2. Multiskilled technician — genuinely competent across both mechanical and electrical work, trusted to run a shift's maintenance alone. Multiskilling is where the pay step usually comes, and many employers will fund the qualifications to get you there.

3. Then the paths fork. One is technical depth: senior technician, controls or automation engineer, instrumentation specialist, or reliability engineer analysing failure data to reduce breakdowns. This suits graduates well because it uses the analytical side of a degree.

4. The other is supervisory: shift maintenance team leader, then maintenance manager or engineering manager, with responsibility for budgets, contractors, shutdowns and capital projects.

5. Wider moves are common and worth knowing about — into project engineering, asset management, field service engineering for an equipment manufacturer, or technical sales. Timeframes vary enormously; there is no conventional ladder with fixed years attached, and a graduate with a degree behind them often moves off the tools faster than the typical route allows.

6Where this varies

The differences between employers are large and worth researching before applying. Shift pattern is the biggest one: some sites are Monday-to-Friday days, others run continuous shifts including nights, which changes both pay and lifestyle. Scope varies too — on a small site you may be the only technician and do everything from a leaking tap to a robot cell; on a large plant you might specialise narrowly in one area or one type of asset. Some employers run 'multiskilled' teams where mechanical and electrical work is shared; others keep the trades separate, and in the latter your electrical qualifications determine what you're allowed to touch. In-house maintenance teams (employed by the site owner) tend to have deeper equipment knowledge and more improvement work, while contracted-out facilities maintenance providers tend to be more ticket-driven and reactive across multiple client buildings. Regulated sectors — rail, aviation, nuclear, pharmaceuticals, medical devices — add licensing, documentation and qualification requirements that don't exist in general manufacturing, and progression in those sectors often depends on gaining specific approvals rather than general experience. Chartered status via a professional body such as the IET or IMechE is available and can matter if you're aiming to move into engineering management, but it's far less standard in maintenance than it is in design or consultancy engineering.