Apprentice IT Support Assistant (Desktop Support)

High Temperature Research Centre, IT Services

Location: High Temperature Research Centre, Airfield Drive, Coventry, CV7 9BF

Full time starting salary £20,494 per annum rising to £25,977 after 12 months service.

Apprentice Grade 3

Full Time / Fixed Term for 18 Months

Apprenticeship Standard: Information Communications Technician

Training Provider: QA

Closing date: 8 November 2026 - please upload a CV with your application.

Eligibility: The training delivered in apprenticeships is funded through the apprenticeship levy which is subject to UK Government funding rules for apprenticeships. When reviewing applications the University and the training provider will be checking candidates meet this eligibility criteria. Further information is available on our webpage.

You have normally been a resident in the UK for the last 3 years. For exemptions please refer to the government funding rules for apprenticeships.

Our offer to you

People are at the heart of what we are and do.

The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university. We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success.

We are committed to helping the people who work here to develop through our sector-leading Birmingham Professional programme which provides all professional services staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential. With almost 5,000 professional services jobs in a wide-range of functions in Edgbaston and in our campus in Dubai, there are plenty of opportunities for you to be able to develop your career at the University.

We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate. We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are, and how we work.

Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees and to the success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer a variety of flexible working arrangements. We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working. In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 days paid holiday a year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high quality subsidised day nurseries.

The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site. On campus we have a state-of-the-art sports centre with pool, shops, places to eat and drink, our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens.

Find out more about the benefits of working for the University of Birmingham

Apprenticeship context

The apprenticeship is a customer facing entry level IT support opportunity within a 2nd line Desktop Support Team that forms part of End Users Services at the University of Birmingham's High Temperature Research Centre (HTRC) based close to Coventry.

The apprentice will develop skills completing basic IT support and moving in to different areas as the apprenticeship programme allows.

The High Temperature Research Centre (HTRC) is a collaboration between the University of Birmingham and Rolls-Royce.

The 5,800 sqm Centre is funded through a £40M investment by Rolls-Royce plc, matched by a £20M government grant through the Higher Education Funding Council for England's (HEFCE) UK Research Partnership Investment Fund (UKRPIF).

The Centre, based near Coventry, enables production scale research and experimentation to deliver rapid high-quality product and process innovation and is a unique casting, design, simulation and advanced manufacturing research facility. It focusses initially on the key design and manufacturing aspects of investment casting.

The Centre is a self-contained investment casting foundry with the following processes: Core, Wax, Shell, Cast, Chemical Leach & Etch, Finish (abrasive blast, emery dress), Measurement & Inspection and Laboratories.

Apprenticeship summary

Apprentice IT Support Assistants will learn extensive customer face to face interactions, visits to deskside and remote support. You will learn to provide IT support to staff and students of the University.

You will learn how to analyse and triage calls; resolving straightforward enquiries, and passing on more time consuming or complicated enquiries to colleagues both in the Service Desk Team and in the wider University teams. In order to flexibly use resource you may be given the opportunity to work elsewhere in the department or wider University.

During this apprenticeship you will learn the following duties:

• Providing IT support to staff, students and visitors. IT Support Assistants will typically spend 2 days a week dealing with face to face callers.

• Developing and maintaining a good knowledge of the organisational structure in your area so as to be able to triage calls appropriately and understand the organisational impact of reported faults.

• Where reported faults mean a member of staff is unable to work you will need to react quickly and diagnose and fix faults if possible or pass on to the appropriate person for further support. This would be both visit and remote tasks.

• Treat everyone with dignity and respect, supporting equality and valuing diversity.

• Installing any non-standard new PCs, service, image and redeploy existing PCs.

• Moving and reinstalling IT equipment for office moves.

• Obtaining quotations for staff IT equipment, under guidance, and processing orders where the quote is agreed.

• Tracking and chasing orders which are in progress.

• Ensuring office supplies are stocked.

• Working with 3rd party contractors to organise and deploy IT hardware and software.

• Implementing the tape changing process including managing the rotation of tape sets, between sites, libraries and fire safes.

• Ensuring the asset database is accurate by adding, removing and updating records.

• Checking and advising on the specification of equipment to feed into the rolling replacement programme.

• Managing the disposal of IT equipment with 3rd party suppliers.

• Treats everyone with dignity and respect in line with current equality legislation.

You will be expected to engage fully with the University of Birmingham apprenticeship scheme, attending mandatory group days and contributing to the successful promotion of the scheme by representing your department in a positive manner.

This apprenticeship would suit

• Someone looking to develop a career in IT support.

• The role will require someone who can organise their own time and complete the tasks required of them.

• We are looking for someone who is keen to learn and enjoys providing excellent customer service.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

• 5 GCSEs at grade C/4 or above, including Mathematics and English (or equivalent level 2 vocational qualifications including demonstrable examples of the required level of literacy and numeracy).

• Experience of using core Microsoft Office products (e.g. Excel, Word, PowerPoint).

• Basic PC troubleshooting / support skills.

• A desire to provide excellent customer service, with a friendly and helpful personality.

• Able to learn excellent communication skills, both written and verbal.

• Excellent time keeping.

• Able to learn how to prioritise competing demands.

• The ability to learn how to work effectively as a member of a team and unsupervised when required.

• Genuine enthusiasm for all things IT.

• A desire to continually learn and improve.

• Ability to learn and understand how diversity considerations affect own area (e.g. Dietary requirements/dress code).

• Experience of configuring mobile devices such as Phones and Tablets.

• Basic experience of IT troubleshooting, both hardware and software.

Career Pathway

On completion of this apprenticeship, you may be able to progress into the role of an IT Support Technician.

For enquiries please email: apprenticeships@contacts.bham.ac.uk

View our staff values and behaviours here

Use of AI in applications: We want to understand your genuine interest in the role and for the written elements of your application to accurately reflect your own communication style. Applications that rely too heavily on AI tools can appear generic and lack the detail we need to assess your skills and experience. Such applications will unlikely be progressed to interview.

We believe there is no such thing as a 'typical' member of University of Birmingham staff and that diversity in its many forms is a strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation and debate at the heart of University life. We are committed to proactively addressing the barriers experienced by some groups in our community and are proud to hold Athena SWAN, Race Equality Charter and Disability Confident accreditations. We have an Equality Diversity and Inclusion Centre that focuses on continuously improving the University as a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone has the opportunity to succeed. We are also committed to sustainability, which is a key part of our strategy. You can find out more about our work to create a fairer university for everyone on our website.