L5 AI Engineer Apprenticeship

Drive Real Impact in Your Organisation

£1.4m revenue identified through data-driven insights

1,300 annual FTE time saved through pipeline automations

£120,000 saved by creating efficiencies

5x faster ML model training achieved through automations

A Programme Built for Business Impact

The Data Engineer Apprenticeship is a Levy-funded programme designed to equip employees with the technical and leadership skills to understand the data engineering lifecycle and maximise the value of your business data.

Duration: 14 months

Price: Fully funded by the Apprenticeship Levy

Upskill Existing Talent

Develop an internal talent pipeline, enabling existing employees to build technical skills in areas like data lakes, Python, and cloud technologies.

Modernise Data Infrastructure

Empower your team to migrate from legacy systems to modern cloud platforms, automating manual tasks and improving data processing efficiency.

Build Robust Data Pipelines

Train your staff to create and manage robust data pipelines, ensuring consistent data flow and higher data quality.

Reduce Recruitment Costs

Cultivate in-house expertise, decreasing reliance on expensive contractors and lengthy recruitment cycles.

Suitable Roles & Strategic Capability

The Level 5 Data Engineer Apprenticeship is your pipeline for developing the data infrastructure backbone of your organisation.

Core Data Infrastructure

Candidates focused on building and maintaining robust data pipelines, cleaning, structuring, and ensuring reliable loading into data warehouses.

Applied & Specialist Roles

Cloud Data Engineer and DevOps Data Engineer specialising in cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP), automating operations, and applying containerisation for deployment.

Cross-Functional & Future Paths

Supporting the reliability of enterprise platforms, BI Data Engineer integrating backend systems with reporting tools, and candidates for Junior ML Engineer roles.

What Makes Our Programme Special

We deliver all our programmes online to provide maximum flexibility and inclusivity, ensuring all your employees can participate regardless of location. Our approach blends experiential learning, coaching, and technical mentorship to deliver tangible business results.

Real-World Practice for Accelerated Impact

Our proprietary platform, EDUKATE.AI, provides a secure, in-browser sandbox environment. This allows learners to practice new skills on real-world assignments, accelerating their ability to apply new knowledge and drive immediate impact within your organisation.

EDUKATE.AI

Our online learning platform offers a seamless experience with in-browser access to all materials. Immediate feedback on practical assignments and quizzes enables your employees to gauge their progress effectively and continuously improve.

Expert Curriculum

Our curriculum is designed to develop the skills your workforce needs to thrive in a data-driven organisation. The Level 5 Data Engineer programme teaches the latest concepts and tools essential to build and manage critical data infrastructure.

Personalised Learner Support

We provide each of your employees with a dedicated mentor and Learner Success Coach. This personalised support structure addresses both technical and professional development, helping your team overcome obstacles and excel throughout the programme.

Flexible Fully Online Learning

Our programme is fully online, providing maximum flexibility for your employees and your business. Learners can access content from anywhere, with no setup or installation of EDUKATE.AI required, ensuring a seamless learning experience.

Data Community

Joining our programme means your employees become part of a thriving community of thousands of data professionals. This rich network provides a valuable resource for peer and alumni support, allowing them to benefit from the expertise of others in the field.

Eligibility, Funding & Commitment

The Data Engineer Apprenticeship is ideal for organisations seeking to develop internal data engineering talent and maximise the value of their business data.

Details for Employers

Price / Funding Band - Fully funded by the Apprenticeship Levy, up to the maximum funding band of £19,000
Non-Levy Cost - If you are a non-Levy payer (SME), the government funds 95% of the training cost. Your co-investment is only 5%.
Apprentice Eligibility - Employed in England and resident in the UK or EEA for the last 3 years. No prior data training or related experience is required.

Details for Managers

Apprentice Time - Can commit to the minimum planned weekly hours off the job learning - required for the duration of the programme.
Manager Time - 30-minute progress review meeting with the apprentice and their dedicated coach every 3-4 months.
Compliance Support - We handle the administration. Our team manages compliance, funding applications, and Digital Apprenticeship Service (DAS) account administration.

Delivering Value from Day One

The curriculum ensures your engineers are experts in scalable data product design, advanced SQL/NoSQL, and pipeline automation. They gain the mastery of tools like Python, DevOps, and Cloud services to ensure data is always accessible, reliable, and usable across the entire organisation to power analytics, AI, and strategic decision-making.

Core Modules

Python for Data Engineering

Learners are taught Python syntax and data structures to become familiar with how to program in Python, as well as data processing and cleaning with Pandas. They will also complete the programme understanding version control with Git, from command-line basics to handling conflicts, merge requests, and code reviews. And get hands-on experience with software testing using unit tests in Python and the pytest library.

Data Engineering Concepts

Learners will discover more about what is meant by data engineering and how it can be used in your organisation. As well as understand why data modelling is important and the various techniques that can be used to model your data efficiently.

Databases, SQL and NoSQL

Learners are taught the fundamentals of SQL, from connecting to SQLite databases and performing basic queries, to advanced topics like subqueries, joins, and optimising queries with indexes. We will also explore NoSQL databases to understand their pros and cons. As well as work with real-world examples, and gain practical experience with tools like DBeaver, SQLAlchemy, and BigQuery to connect and manipulate data in diverse SQL environments.

Data Product Management

Learners explore how to analyse user and business requirements for data products. As well as how to design scalable and secure solutions, and how to document your technical processes.

DevOps and Containerisation

Learners explore the Software Development Lifecycle and Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment processes to gain an understanding of containerisation with an introduction to Docker. Additionally, they gain an understanding of deploying container-based applications using Kubernetes and learn Infrastructure as Code (IaaC) principles – implementing them with Terraform for efficient infrastructure management.

Data Quality, Governance and Ethics

Learners embark on a comprehensive exploration of data quality, which encompasses aspects such as accuracy, completeness, consistency, and timeliness. We also address critical topics in data governance, including compliance with privacy and security regulations and ethical considerations. As well as the implementation of best practices to ensure data quality and ethical data handling, while minimising environmental impact.

Data Pipelines and Automation

Learners are introduced to the essential concepts of data pipelines and workflow orchestration, followed by hands-on experience in how to build, monitor, and scale data pipelines using Python and tools like Airflow and Luigi. We also cover how to configure data access, as well as manage permissions, incident management, and optimisation techniques, to ensure efficient and reliable data processing within pipelines.

Data Product Implementation

Learners explore the lifecycle of data product implementation, which covers prototyping and implementation using Python, rigorous testing and debugging processes, and various approaches to deploying data products effectively in real-world scenarios.

Advanced Data Engineering Techniques

Learners are taught how to perform real-time data streaming and advanced integration techniques, and learn best practices for data security and access control. We also explore strategies for optimising performance and scalability in data engineering within a cloud computing environment, while considering vendor-agnostic principles and evaluating various data storage and computing options.

Emerging Trends and Technologies

Learners explore the latest trends and emerging technologies in data engineering, with a focus on how to optimise data products and leverage advancements in data science. They also learn strategies to ensure business continuity through robust data provision, while emphasising the importance of continuous improvement to stay abreast of rapid technological developments.

FAQs

What delivery options do you offer?

We tailor our delivery to your workforce needs. This ranges from independent, immersive e-learning supported by EDUKATE.AI through to tailored bootcamps, to our structured apprenticeship programmes.

Are you able to tailor the programme to the organisation and sector?

Yes. We work with our clients to contextualise our programmes to their organisation and sectors they operate in. We do this through bespoke assignments and guest lectures from industry experts. We also work with a range of partners to create bespoke programmes for sectors, such as health and journalism.

What is the Apprenticeship Levy?

The UK government introduced the Apprenticeship Levy scheme in April 2017 as a way to drive investment in strengthening the country’s skills base.

All organisations with annual staff costs of over £3m have to pay 0.5% of their salary bill into a ring-fenced apprenticeship levy pot. The money is collected monthly via PAYE and can only be used for training on approved apprenticeship schemes (such as the Level 5 AI Leader Apprenticeship that we offer). Organisations must forfeit any levy funding left unspent for 24 months or more.

For Individuals

Last Chance: Join the Final L7 Cohort

For Organisations

AI for Leaders

About

Revolutionise Data & AI Upskilling with EDUKATE.AI

Resources

The Data & AI Mastery Podcast

Level 5 Data Engineer Apprenticeship