How to Get Into Engineering Without a Degree

Engineering has a reputation for being a degree profession, largely because so much of the careers advice aimed at school leavers assumes university is the default. In practice, a large share of the people actually doing engineering and technician work across the Humber’s refineries, wind turbine blade factories, marine yards and process plants got there through an apprenticeship, an HNC or HND, or some combination of the two. Employers in these sectors are often more interested in what you can demonstrably do than in which qualification got you there.

This matters particularly here. The Humber’s industrial base, sometimes summarised as the “Energy Estuary”, runs on process engineering, mechanical and electrical maintenance, and technician-level skills at chemical sites, ports, marine yards and manufacturing plants. These are trades that have always recruited through apprenticeships and technical colleges as much as through universities, and that tradition hasn’t gone away as the sector has modernised.

Why employers here don’t insist on a degree

For most engineering technician, maintenance and process roles, what an employer actually needs is someone who understands how equipment works, can read a technical drawing or a permit-to-work system, follows safety procedures without needing to be told twice, and improves with supervised practice. A degree can demonstrate some of that indirectly. Four years of hands-on apprenticeship training, working on real plant under a qualified supervisor, demonstrates it directly.

This is especially true in sectors where safety and practical competence sit right alongside technical knowledge:

• Chemicals and process sites such as those on Saltend Chemicals Park near Hull, and Phillips 66’s Humber Refinery at South Killingholme, run craft and process apprenticeship programmes precisely because they want people trained to their own procedures and safety culture from day one, not people who arrive with a general theoretical grounding and no site experience.
• Marine engineering work, across the vessel repair, offshore supply and marine services firms in the Humber Marine and Renewables network, has historically been an apprenticeship-and-experience trade, with time served on tools valued as highly as formal study.
• Ports and logistics engineering and maintenance roles, supporting the cranes, conveyors and heavy plant at ABP’s Humber ports, need people who can keep equipment running reliably, a skill built through practical training as much as academic study.

None of this means qualifications don’t matter. It means the qualifications that matter most are often technical and vocational ones, not necessarily a bachelor’s degree.

The apprenticeship route

An engineering apprenticeship is usually the single most direct path in, because you earn while you train and the qualification is built around what employers in the sector actually need.

A typical route looks like this:

1. Level 2 (Intermediate) – for some school leavers or those without existing GCSEs in English, maths and science, this is a foundation year covering basic workshop and technical skills.
2. Level 3 (Advanced) – the core engineering apprenticeship most people mean when they talk about “doing an apprenticeship”. Typically three to four years, combining paid on-the-job training with day release or block release at college, covering disciplines such as mechanical, electrical, instrumentation or multi-skilled maintenance.
3. Level 4+ (Higher/Degree apprenticeship) – for those who want to keep progressing, some employers and providers support a move into higher apprenticeships or degree apprenticeships alongside or after Level 3, without ever needing to leave paid work to study full-time.

In the Humber, HETA (Humberside Engineering Training Association) is the region’s dedicated engineering apprenticeship provider, working with a network of more than 400 companies, around 90% of them based in the Humber, and training roughly 600 Level 3 engineering apprentices a year. Because HETA works across such a wide employer base, it’s a good starting point even if you don’t yet know which specific company you want to work for. Our guide to engineering apprenticeships through HETA covers how the programme works and how to apply.

Other useful apprenticeship entry points include:

• Phillips 66’s Humber Refinery runs a four-year craft apprenticeship programme, typically taking on up to around 12 apprentices a year, training people directly for maintenance and process roles on a live refinery site.
• Hull College offers apprenticeships across engineering trades and is a training partner for Siemens Gamesa’s wind turbine blade apprenticeships at its Hull factory, relevant if you’re drawn to the renewables side of engineering rather than process or chemicals.
• TEC Partnership, covering Grimsby Institute, University Centre Grimsby, East Riding College and others, runs engineering apprenticeships from Level 2 through to Level 7, useful if you’re based nearer Grimsby or North East Lincolnshire.
• CATCH, based near Saltend, delivers technical training specifically geared to process, energy and engineering employers, often used alongside an apprenticeship rather than as a standalone route.

If you’re weighing this up against going to university at all, our apprenticeships versus university guide sets out the trade-offs in more detail. And if you’re specifically curious about the wind sector, see our guide on how to become a wind turbine technician.

The HNC/HND route

If an apprenticeship isn’t the right fit, whether because of your age, existing commitments, or wanting to study a subject in more depth before committing to a single employer, Higher National Certificates (HNC) and Higher National Diplomas (HND) are the other well-established non-degree route into engineering.

• An HNC is typically one year full-time or two years part-time, and covers a similar first-year depth to a degree.
• An HND builds on that, typically a further year, taking you to a level roughly equivalent to two years of a degree, sometimes described as equivalent to a foundation degree.

Many engineers study for an HNC part-time while already working, often with an employer contributing towards fees because the qualification directly benefits their business. This is common in process and chemical engineering roles, where staff who started as apprentices or shift technicians go on to study an HNC in mechanical, electrical or process engineering over several years, moving into more senior maintenance, process or supervisory roles as they qualify. It’s a slower route than a full-time apprenticeship, but it avoids taking on student debt and lets you keep earning throughout.

TEC Partnership and other regional colleges offer HNC and HND engineering pathways locally, so it’s worth checking what’s available part-time or via day release before assuming you’d need to relocate or study elsewhere.

What employers actually look for

Across process, chemicals and marine engineering employers in the Humber, a few things come up consistently when they’re assessing non-graduate candidates:

• Relevant GCSEs or equivalent, particularly maths, English and a science subject, as a baseline for most Level 3 apprenticeships.
• Practical aptitude, sometimes tested through workshop assessments or aptitude tests as part of the application process, since day-to-day work involves physically working with equipment.
• Attitude to safety, which matters enormously on a live chemical plant, refinery or marine site, and which employers often assess as much through your answers in interview as through any qualification on paper.
• Willingness to keep learning, since most technician and craft roles involve ongoing training as plant, technology and regulations change.

A cover letter or application for one of these routes is worth tailoring specifically. If you’re applying for an apprenticeship, our cover letter templates for apprenticeships guide has practical examples. If you’re coming into engineering as a career change from another industry, our CV tips for career changers guide covers how to present transferable experience, such as time spent in a different hands-on trade, warehouse operations, or the armed forces, in a way that speaks directly to what engineering employers are looking for.

Pay expectations while you train

As a broad, general guide rather than a promise tied to any specific vacancy, Level 3 engineering apprentices typically earn in the range of around £14,000–£22,000 during training, rising as they progress through the programme, with fully qualified craft or process technicians typically earning in the region of £28,000–£40,000 depending on experience, shift patterns and employer, and higher again for those who move into senior technician, supervisory or engineering management roles. These figures vary by sector and site, so treat them as a general orientation rather than a fixed number.

Where to look next

Once you have a sense of which route suits you, the practical next steps are to look directly at what’s being advertised. GOV.UK’s Find an Apprenticeship service lists live apprenticeship vacancies nationally, filterable by location, and ABP’s Humber careers page and Phillips 66’s Humber Refinery page are worth checking directly if a specific employer appeals to you. Our own hub pages on apprenticeships in Hull and apprenticeships in Grimsby round up region-specific opportunities, and the chemicals and process and marine and engineering sector guides give a fuller picture of what day-to-day work in these fields actually involves before you commit to a route in.