Apprentice IT Support Assistant

UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM

Coventry (CV7 9HD)

Closes in 17 days (Sunday 8 November 2026)

Posted on 22 October 2026

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Summary

We're offering an exciting apprenticeship opportunity within our IT team at the High Temperature Research Centre in Coventry. This is a fantastic chance to develop your IT skills, gain practical experience, and support colleagues across the business with a range of IT requirements while earning and learning.

Wage

£20,494 a year

Minimum wage rates (opens in new tab)

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

Training course
Information communications technician (level 3)
Hours
Monday to Friday, 9am- 5pm

35 hours a week

Start date

Monday 4 January 2027

Duration

1 year 6 months

Positions available

1

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

  • 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

Where you'll work

High Temperature Research Centre (HTRC)
Ansty Park
Coventry
CV7 9HD

Training

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

Training provider

QA LIMITED

Training course

Information communications technician (level 3)

Understanding apprenticeship levels (opens in new tab)

What you'll learn

Course contents
  • Interpret and prioritise internal or external customer's requirements in line with organisation's policy
  • Apply the appropriate tools and techniques to undertake fault finding and rectification
  • apply Continuous Professional Development to support necessary business output and technical developments
  • Operate safely and securely across platforms and responsibilities maintaining the security of personal data of internal and external stakeholders
  • Communicate with all levels of stakeholders, keeping them informed of progress and managing escalation where appropriate
  • Develop and maintain effective working relationships with colleagues, customers and other relevant stakeholders
  • Manage and prioritise the allocated workload effectively making best use of time and resources
  • Complete documentation relevant to the task and escalate where appropriate
  • Install or undertake basic software upgrades,either physically or remotely
  • Establish and diagnose the extent of the IT support task, in line with the organisation's policies and Service Level Agreements
  • Provide remote/F2F support to resolve customer requirements
  • Maintain a safe working environment for own personal safety and others in line with Health & Safety appropriate to the task
  • Identify and scope the best solution informed by the system data associated with the task
  • Test and evaluate the system's performance and compliance with customer requirements.
  • Escalate non routine problems in line with procedures
  • Use basic scripting to execute the relevant tasks for example PowerShell, Linux
  • Carry out routine maintenance across systems, (such as IT, Communications), ensuring organisational compliance at all times
  • Apply the necessary security, in line with access and/or encryption requirements
  • Use a range of Cabling or Connectors equipment in line with technical requirements for example physically or remotely
  • Test and evaluate network environments
  • Monitor performance and usage of a network
  • Deploy applications on a network
  • Set up storage and data access for staff
  • Apply necessary security measures, in line with access requirements to a network
  • Carry out routine maintenance across network systems, ensuring organisational compliance
  • Monitor network-related workloads including DNS and firewalls
  • Install or undertake basic upgrades, either physically or remotely
  • Establish digital communication or telecommunications systems through, for example cabling and connecting equipment.
  • Identify a range of tools and or diagnostic equipment, for example, Hardware or Software components, to resolve Communications or Telecommunications requirements.
  • Undertake basic telecommunications activities, in response to an allocated task, designated responsibilities, instructions or customer’s requirements.
  • Use information necessary to identify operational issues and rectify or escalate accordingly in line with policy
  • Interpret and prioritise internal or external customer's requirements in line with organisation's policy
  • Apply the appropriate tools and techniques to undertake fault finding and rectification
  • apply Continuous Professional Development to support necessary business output and technical developments
  • Operate safely and securely across platforms and responsibilities maintaining the security of personal data of internal and external stakeholders
  • Communicate with all levels of stakeholders, keeping them informed of progress and managing escalation where appropriate
  • Develop and maintain effective working relationships with colleagues, customers and other relevant stakeholders
  • Manage and prioritise the allocated workload effectively making best use of time and resources
  • Complete documentation relevant to the task and escalate where appropriate
  • Install or undertake basic software upgrades,either physically or remotely
  • Establish and diagnose the extent of the IT support task, in line with the organisation's policies and Service Level Agreements
  • Provide remote/F2F support to resolve customer requirements
  • Maintain a safe working environment for own personal safety and others in line with Health & Safety appropriate to the task

Training schedule

  • The training will be block release and online with QA
  • There will also be additional support provided by their coach

Requirements

Essential qualifications

GCSE in:

  • English (grade 4 or C)
  • Maths (grade 4 or 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
  • Organisation skills
  • Customer care skills
  • Problem solving skills
  • Analytical skills
  • Team working
  • Patience

Other requirements

  • Passing a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check

About this employer

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.

https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/ (opens in new tab)

Company benefits

https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/jobs/staff-benefits

Disability Confident

Disability Confident

A fair proportion of interviews for this apprenticeship will be offered to applicants with a disability or long-term health condition. This includes non-visible disabilities and conditions.

You can choose to be considered for an interview under the Disability Confident scheme. You’ll need to meet the essential requirements to be considered for an interview.

After this apprenticeship

Your earnings can increase over time with an apprenticeship. Find out about potential future pay (opens in new tab).

  • On completion of this apprenticeship you may be able to progress into a IT Support Technician role

Ask a question

The contact for this apprenticeship is:

QA LIMITED

apprenticeships@contacts.bham.ac.uk

The reference code for this apprenticeship is VAC2000060530.

Apply now

Closes in 17 days (Sunday 8 November 2026)

After signing in, you’ll apply for this apprenticeship on the company's website.