Apprentice IT Support Assistant (Desktop Support)

Location: United Kingdom Department: Clerical/Administrative

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