IT Solutions Technician Apprenticeship Standard

This Apprenticeship is recognised for entry onto the BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, Register of IT Technicians confirming Level 3 professional competence.
Successful candidates can progress onto a Higher/Degree Apprenticeship, continue with full time education.

Typical job titles include IT Solutions Technician, Service Analyst, Junior Systems Analyst, Systems Developer, Database Technician, IT Support Analyst, IT Support Technician, IT Systems Support, Junior DevOps Professional, IT Service Desk or Applications Support Technician (at 2nd, 3rd or 4th line support)

IT Solutions Technicians Apprentices work as part of multidisciplinary team to develop, implement and maintain complete IT solutions, including hardware infrastructures (such as servers and networks) and software (such as operating systems, middleware and applications).

IT Solutions Technicians undertake duties across the complete IT solutions, working on the team’s core activities so all apprentices take a common core and then choose one of two options.

At Peterborough Regional College we currently offer the IT Hardware Solutions pathway. As an IT solution technician you’ll be taught and tested against the core skills to work with a range of IT equipment. You will learn about current and future technologies used in the industry. Your professional skills will be stretched to meet the industry required quality.

You can apply for an Apprenticeship if you are living in England, over 16 and not in full-time education. You must be in paid employment for the duration of your Apprenticeship, you cannot be self-employed or a volunteer. Employers must pay you the minimum Apprenticeship wage or more, for a minimum of 30 hours a week.

On this programme your will be taught to apply a professional methodology or framework to gather and analyse requirements; to design, develop, test and implement IT solutions and to provide ongoing support both directly to end users and for the underlying IT services.

Technical Skills
     •  Apply a professional methodology or framework in their work tasks.
     •  Apply a range of technical IT skills, including: accessing remote systems; file manipulation; file editing, changing system or application settings; system administration; setting up and upgrading components (infrastructure or software).  Operates in line with organisational policies, standards, legislation, security requirements, professional ethics, privacy and confidentiality; and understands escalation policies.
     •  Create and maintain documentation in accordance with best practice, organisational guidance and legislation.
     •  Identiy appropriate technical solutions using both logical and creative thinking.
     •  Diagnose and understand client requirements and problems using sound analytical and problem solving skills.
     • Effective communication in a variety of situations including formal and informally both within their team and externally.
     •  Operate securely across all their areas of responsibility, in line with organisational guidance and legislation.
     •  Work at any stage of the hardware solution lifecycle
     •  Install and configure basic hardware system components, networks and devices (including servers, end-user computers, and mobile devices, whether physical or virtual) as required.
     •  Demonstrates safe application of the concepts of ElectroStatic Discharge (ESD) and meets appropriate health and safety standards when working with hardware.

Techincal Knowledge and Understanding
     •  On the completion of the Apprentice you will be able to understand:
     •  The stages within the overall solution lifecycle.
     •  The main principles, features, differences and benefits of Waterfall and Agile type methodologies and the function of service managment frameworks.
     •  The aims and benefits of DevOps approaches: including the benefits of automation the ideas behind continuous integration and monitoring.
     •  The principles of Solution Architecture including the importance of re-use.
     •  Why testing is necessary, the need for both functional and non-functional testing, the different type of testing avaliable, including unit testing, integration testing, user acceptance testing and performance testing.
     •  Planning and delivery within their role and how this contributes to the wider team and the organisation.
     •  How the end-user context influences the solution.
     •  The key features of, and where to find, organisational requirements in relation to policies, standards, legislation, professional ethics, privacy and confidentiality.
     •  The main legislation, policies and standards that apply to IT solutions.
     •  The concepts of networking including the ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation) and TCP/IP (Transsmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) network stacks, Ethernet LANs (Local Area Networks), IP addressing, Port numbers, DNS (Domain Name System), DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), and the principles of routing between LANS and WANs (Wide Area Networks).
     •  The different types of network devices, routers and networks switches, their relationships to the stack model and the use of firewalls.
     •  The main components within an IT Solution including how hardware and software components work together.
     •  The main components of a computer system and their purposes, including servers end-user computers, and mobile devices (both physical and virtual, user interfaces, CPUs, storage and connectivity.
     •  The purpose of an Operating System.
     •  The concepts of Cloud, Cloud Services and storage.
     •  How their work contributes to business performance, continuity and resilience.
     •  The main trends in emerging technologies - including the Internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence, and automation - and the potential implications for digital activities.
     •  The necessary numerical skills including Binary and Hexadecimal.
     •  Why cyber security is essential as park of the delivery of any solution.
     •  The importance of working securely and the main classifications of types of threats and common mitigation practices.
     •  The meaning of risk in the context of security and can explain the relationship between levels or risk, impact , and designed level of protection in IT Solutions.
     •  The role of configuration management and version control systems and when they should be used.
     •  The concepts of virtualistion
     •  The use of different platforms (including web, mobile or desktop applications).
     •  The concept of relational databases, non-relational structured and unstructured databases.
     •  The concepts of solutions developments to be given set of requirements, including the use of standard approaches for web and cloud-based solutions.
     •  The benefits of and requirements for vendor support including commerical cloud offerings.
     •  The principles of solution Architecture as applied to hardware.
     •  The advantages and disadvantages of different types of hardware configurations.
     •  The range of cabling and connectivity
     •  The concepts of standard builds
     •  The concepts of mobile data, Bluetooth, 3G, 4G, WIFI and the security implications of such solutions.
     •  Different types of storage including locally attached, SAN (storage area network) and networked, and the concepts of RAID (Redundant Array of      •  Independent Discs) and knowledge of RAID levels.
     •  Requirements when working with Electro static sensitive equipment (including personal grounding devices) and when working in a server room or data centre and when handling equipment.
     •  How to install, configure and test hardware components, networks and devices including servers, end-user computers and mobile devices.
     •  The need to follow a logical approach and how to ensure connectivity within solutions.

Underpinning Skills, Attitudes and Behaviours
     •  Working professionally and independently, taking responsibility and initiative as appropriate.
     •  Demonstrating standard business courtesies and professional ethics in how you work
     •  Demonstrating a productive and organised approach to your work
     •  Working effectively with customers, clients and users.

You will also complete a work-based portfolio showcasing the skills you have learnt on the course in a work-based environment, as well as an End-point assessment in the last 2-3 months of the programme - consisting of a synoptic project undertaken in the classroom and an assessment interview.

As an Apprentice you will be expected to attend college 1 day a week as part of your ongoing 20% off-the-job training. Additional off-the-job training hours are expected to be completed within the workplace, however you may be asked to complete tasks at home via Google Classroom and One-file.

Please note you may also be asked to complete additional English and Maths qualification as part of the Apprenticeship programme.