Bristol - Oxford - Reading
The UK’s Largest Industrial Refrigeration Contractor
This is not your usual apprenticeship…
Our industrial refrigeration engineers are the behind-the-scenes heroes keeping the country moving.
Whether it’s making sure our food and drink stay fresh from processing until delivery, ensuring life-saving medications can be safely stored in temperature-critical conditions, or masterminding the ice rinks enjoyed by millions of families during the festive season, our engineers play a vital role in so many services we take for granted.
Star’s 3-year apprenticeship programme provides a nationally recognised engineering qualification
With the UK facing a shortage of skilled refrigeration engineers, you’ll have a future-proof career with unrivalled opportunities, highly sought after by employers. On graduation, successful apprentices will be offered permanent employment as an Industrial Refrigeration Engineer with further progression opportunities available through Star’s engineering grading system. There is also scope for development into other areas of the business as well as access to further education programmes.
Apprenticeship stages and future opportunities
Industry leading salary
The apprenticeship scheme has a competitive salary structure with 6 monthly increments based on key performance indicators and generous company benefits.
What will I learn?
-
Service, maintenance and installation of heavy-duty heating and cooling systems and components.
-
Health and Safety and environmental legislation and working practices
-
Fault diagnosis and rectification through root cause analysis
-
Safe handling of refrigerants (including ammonia and CO2)
-
Electrical systems
-
Communication and customer care
25% of our current management team joined the company as apprentices or trainees.
95% of our apprentices successfully complete their 3-year training
Star employees on average stay with the company for over 15 years
The biggest highlight of my apprenticeship was working alongside first class engineers who take the time to explain how refrigeration engineering actually works.
Sam Gills
Industrial Refrigeration Apprentice
ACR Trainee of the Year Award 2017
Bronze Medal - WorldSkills UK 2018
Life as a Star apprentice
On top of your studies and work experience, you’ll get to travel across the UK to meet your peers and take part in social events and teambuilding activities with our network of apprentices nationwide.
Many of our current and former apprentices have also been nominated and attained prestigious industry awards.
Hear from our team
Listen to testimonials from apprentices past and present. Get the best start to your profesional engineering career with Star and build your experience while you earn at one of the premier industrial contractors in the UK.
Get in touch with us today to register your interest and begin your apprentice journey.
Our apprentice stories
Read more about our apprentices and their individual journeys.
Our award winning apprentices are showcased in the London Science Museum, representing the industrial refrigeration sector at the Technicians exhibit. Click below for full details.
Sam’s story
Tom’s story
Refrigeration Facts & Contribution to Sustainability
Star company structure
Check out some of the fantastic career path opportunities Star offers after apprenticeship graduation
1. Sales Support
Star’s industry leading sales engineers are usually the first point of contact for our customers. Using their in-depth technical knowledge, the sales team provide customers with innovative and sustainable solutions for industrial cooling and heating. Star works with the world’s largest organisations and in a wide range of industries, including: Temperature controlled distribution, Food manufacturing, District heating, HVAC, Data centres, Process (Pharmaceutical, Oil & Gas, Chemical), Ice and curling rinks.
2. Consultancy
Star Technical Solutions (STS) is the technical advisory service of the Star Refrigeration Group. Operating as an independent consultancy, STS provides technical advice to clients on a wide range of refrigeration, HVAC, heat pump and insulated envelope industries issues.
3. Design
As the largest industrial refrigeration company in the country, Star are highly regarded for technical innovation which is supported by our team of experienced design engineers who are all trained in house. Their role involves designing groundbreaking, ultra-efficient and low carbon solutions for our customers.
4. Manufacturing
We have two manufacturing facilities in the UK with over 4,000m2 of manufacturing space where our multi-skilled engineers build large-scale cooling and heating systems for our customers.
5. Install and Commissioning
Our team of award winning refrigeration and heating engineers have successfully installed and commissioned large industrial cooling plants and heat pump systems across hundreds of UK sites and a wide range of overseas locations.
6. Service and Maintenance
We have a nationwide network of 11 UK offices fully staffed with mobile field engineers, experienced management and administration teams. Star’s highly skilled refrigeration engineers work on multimillion pound refrigeration systems on a daily basis, performing scheduled maintenance visits to customer sites to check that equipment is running efficiently as well as attending emergency call outs in the event of breakdowns.
7. System Monitoring
The Star Data Analytics business unit was set up to fill a gap in the market for strategic insight data services. The performance optimisation provided by Star’s AI plug-in system, Ethos, finds ways for customers to reduce energy costs and CO2 emissions using data collected from the refrigeration plant on an ongoing basis. The engineering team at SDA have won many top industry accolades for their outstanding contribution to the industry and helping customers cut energy and CO2 emissions.
Our core company values
Roll over each panel to reveal the descriptions
Safe & Legal
We maintain a culture of competence and integrity through our continued commitment to safe and legal practices.
Better For Customer
We work in a partnership with customers, always looking for innovative solutions to improve their business operations.
Develop Young People
We offer young people the opportunity to learn and develop, equipping us to thrive in an environment of fast paced change.
Sensible Margin Focus
We ensure a sustainable future for the benefit of all stakeholders over the long term.
No Surprises
We recognise that open, clear, effective communication is the key to our success.
Application process
We would like to hear about you and why this is the apprenticeship for you, please send your CV and covering letter to recruitment@star-ref.co.uk
Once you’ve submitted your CV and covering email, we’ll review and ensure you meet the essential criteria for your chosen role. We’ll usually be in touch within two weeks of your initial application.
If successful you will be invited to attend either a face-to-face or video interview, which will involve some formal assessment of your skills and competencies. We will discuss your CV and work history, skills and qualifications, the role and company values.
We will be in touch, usually within a week of your final interview, to let you know if you have been successful. We’ll make a verbal offer subject to some pre-employment checks then we can agree a start date and send you a formal offer.