Cardboard Engineer/Structural Design Degree Apprentice
W & J LINNEY LIMITED
Nottinghamshire (NG18 4FW)
Closes in 20 days (Thursday 16 October 2025 at 11:59pm)
Posted on 25 September 2025
Contents
Summary
Linney Display are offering an exciting opportunity to join our award-winning team as an apprentice. Working from our studio and collaborating as part of a multi-discipline and energetic large design team, you will learn crucial creative studio disciplines as part of your day-to-day role.
- Wage
-
£17,000 a year
Check minimum wage rates (opens in new tab)
We will pay your travel expenses to and from Sheffield for your university study blocks.
- Training course
- Packaging professional (integrated degree) (level 6)
- Hours
-
Monday - Friday, 08:30 - 17:30 with 1-hour lunch break
40 hours a week
- Start date
-
Monday 5 January 2026
- Duration
-
4 years
- Positions available
-
2
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
Artfully balancing creativity and practicality, we develop displays that are innovative and eye-catching, while remaining cost-effective and compliant to brand and retailer guidelines
Our working culture is hugely important to us, and teamwork is the key to our success.
Duties will include:
- You will be working collaboratively alongside a diverse mix of 3D Designers, Graphic Designers, Engineers and Project Managers
- Finding innovative ways to help brands increase their retail presence, working with other engineers and designers to develop vibrant in-store designs and packaging
- Gain experience with a team of like-minded multi-discipline engineers and designers to create industry-leading quality prototypes and products
- Liaising with design and sales teams to make sure designs adhere to both client specification and retail guidelines
- Working on a range of briefs from simple shelf trays to complex three-dimensional structures and everything in-between
- Working in a fast-paced studio environment and pivoting from job to job whilst providing legendary customer service
Where you'll work
Adamsway Mansfield
Nottinghamshire
NG18 4FW
Training
Apprenticeships include time away from working for specialist training. You’ll study to gain professional knowledge and skills.
Training provider
SHEFFIELD HALLAM UNIVERSITY
Training course
Packaging professional (integrated degree) (level 6)
Understanding apprenticeship levels (opens in new tab)
What you'll learn
Course contents
- Translate customer briefs to determine a technical packaging brief, which considers business, consumer, operational and sustainability requirements.
- Identify, design, develop and source packaging solutions demonstrating best value, environmental impact and fitness for purpose to meet briefs.
- Critically analyse and apply packaging design options against complex inter-related touchpoints to meet the needs from design to end of life, e.g. environmental impact using life cycle assessment.
- Liaise and coordinate with other stakeholders (e.g. supplier, R&D, marketing, finance, technical) to deliver packaging development projects. When appropriate take the lead and drive the project.
- Initiate and lead projects, using project management tools and skills to deliver projects to time, cost, specification and quality.
- Identify and control project risks through mitigation plans.
- Define parameters, design of experiments, success criteria and protocols for projects appropriate to the brief.
- Lead the design and management of packaging trials (e.g. prototypes, production of samples, transit, shelf life, sensory, machine-ability).
- Document and evaluate trials at different project stages (e.g. laboratory, pilot plant, supplier, filling and packing, transit and distribution) recommending further activities.
- Report results and conclusions. Hypothesise and recommend further adaptions and optimisations.
- Ensure compliance with packaging and market regulatory requirements.
- Demonstrate financial acumen, e.g. managing budget(s); interpreting financial data and evaluating total product costs and their impact throughout the value chain.
- Investigate and interpret non-conformance issues related to Packaging. Resolve using root cause analysis and apply change management.
- Effectively communicate with stakeholders at different levels, building positive working relationships; influencing and persuading key stakeholders effectively.
- Translate business strategy into internal and external capability building programmes (e.g. supplier quality improvement programmes).
- Demonstrate critical thinking, analytical and statistical skills to evaluate and interpret complex information and data (e.g. process capability).
- Proactively identify opportunities to improve packaging based on an analysis of costs, continuous improvement, environmental impact, waste avoidance and process improvements.
- Provide comprehensive technical services to internal colleagues, customers and suppliers.
- Coach and/or mentor.
- Use visual and digital tools systems, e.g. project management, computer aided engineering, business management systems, palletisation software.
Training schedule
- Packaging professional (integrated degree) Level 6 (Degree with honours) Apprenticeship Standard
- You will be required to attend Sheffield Hallam University on a series of 4-day study blocks
Requirements
Essential qualifications
A Level in:
Share if you have other relevant qualifications and industry experience. The apprenticeship can be adjusted to reflect what you already know.
Skills
- Communication skills
- Attention to detail
- Customer care skills
- Problem solving skills
- Team working
- Creative
- Initiative
About this employer
We’re Linney. A sixth generation, world-class, multichannel marketing services group. We drive innovation and change for our clients through insight, creativity, technology and delivery. How we make it work: We Evaluate. We cut subjectivity and make marketing work, combining traditional market research with academic thinking and technological innovation to offer new and informed perspectives that challenge, inspire and improve. Our consumer insights and strategic foresight inform everything we do. And our pragmatic approach, working closely with designers and developers, ensures it’s relevant, practical and delivers what’s needed. We Create. The creative process and bright ideas are the essence of what we do. Our creative teams work in digital and conventional design, and anywhere brands and messages are experienced - including screens, paper and spaces. As our digital world grows and channels to market fragment, it’s here where the idea begins. We Make. We have a deep history of manufacturing: pushing limits and boundaries technically, finding efficiencies and better ways constantly. We not only offer multi-format, digital and litho printing, but combine them with permanent and semi-permanent POS, automated artworking and smart workflow systems - a unique offer in a space that's changing fast. We Activate. We help B2C and B2B brands grow online and offline – from storing, collating and distributing POS for major retailers to assisting ecommerce brands to delight their customers. Our logistics, co-packing and return management systems – alongside our dedicated call centre service – enable us to go further for the brands we work with. "We've grown our family business from a single Victorian bookshop to an international multi-channel marketing group. Change is at the heart of our culture: it's who we are and what we do." Nick Linney Chairman, Linney
After this apprenticeship
- The employer is ready to invest in the development of the successful candidates
- This is a long-term career opportunity
Ask a question
The contact for this apprenticeship is:
SHEFFIELD HALLAM UNIVERSITY
The reference code for this apprenticeship is VAC1000343614.
Apply now
Closes in 20 days (Thursday 16 October 2025 at 11:59pm)
Sign in with your GOV.UK One Login to apply.