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Careers / Services / RFA
RFA Apprenticeships
Careers / Services / RFA

RFA Apprenticeships

An RFA Apprenticeship can give you a world-class career at sea.

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Steward carrying out their duties in the dinning hall of RFA Argus. RFA Argus personnel at work.

Starting life at sea

You’ll begin your career at HMS Raleigh with an RFA Induction and Apprenticeship Functional Skills package before starting your role specific training. This is followed by a training period of 10-33 weeks depending on which role you applied for, where you’ll learn everything you need to know about life at sea and earn your MCA Basic Safety Certificates.
Mounts Bay whilst deployed in the Caribbean. The UK maintains a year-round Naval presence in the Caribbean, providing humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

Travel the world

After your initial training you’ll be ready to join your crew, learning on the job and travelling the world. Your development will now continue place on the job in the shipboard environment, followed by periods of leave in between. Once you’ve completed the final Apprenticeship End Point Assessment, how far you go is up to you.
Navy personnel standing being interviewed with view of ship in the background.

Working as a Communications Apprentice in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary

Ready for a unique career at sea? Learn about life as a Communications Apprentice in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA), where every day brings a new and exciting experience. You’ll get all the training you need to operate our sophisticated comms systems, so your Captain can communicate with other ships and your crewmates can get messages from home.

As an RFA apprentice, all your training will be completed at Royal Navy establishments, where your food and accommodation is free, just like the qualifications you’ll gain.

Joining the RFA apprenticeship scheme is about what you can do and what you want to do, rather than what you’ve done before. For most roles, you don’t need any qualifications. What you do need is ambition and being fully committed to getting stuck in.

Preparing for a civilian role like no other within the merchant navy job, your enthusiasm, sense of adventure and determination are essential. In the RFA we depend on each other, with our individual strengths working together to get the job done, so if you're great at working as part of a team to find the best solution, you're just what we need as an RFA apprentice.

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If you are ready for an exciting career in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, use the below link to request your application.

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If you are unsure at this stage if you want to apply, you can still register your interest with us using the below link.

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