Trainee Shift Engineer sparks a career boost at 40 thanks to degree apprenticeship

A Caernarfon-based Trainee Shift Engineer at Dinorwig Power Station has shared his story of how embarking on a degree apprenticeship at the age of 40 is helping him progress his career.

Mark Jones has embarked on an apprenticeship twice: his first was almost twenty years ago in his first job at another power station, and now he is undergoing a Welsh Government funded degree apprenticeship to take his career to the next level.

Mark is supporting the ‘Genius Decision’ campaign during National Apprenticeship Week Wales 2025 to encourage those at any age to consider an apprenticeship.

Mark joined Dinorwig Power Station as a qualified mechanical fitter before progressing to a mechanical technician on the operations team and then to the control room where he began the degree apprenticeship that he is currently on.

Mark’s story of embarking on an apprenticeship in a later stage of his career is not quite as unique as you might initially think, as just under half (42%) of apprenticeships in Wales were started by learners aged 25 to 39 in Q3 2023/241.

Mark said: “The degree apprenticeship has given me the opportunity to learn the new skills that are important for the new role I have in Dinorwig. It has meant I can now go for the jobs which were previously out of reach, because I wasn’t qualified, so it’s given my career a real boost.”

Mark is currently in his final year of an Electrical Engineering Degree Apprenticeship studying with Wrexham Glyndwr University while working in the control room at the hydroelectric power plant.

He continued: “The apprenticeship has given me the flexibility to be able to work, earn money and learn all at the same time. It means I’m still moving forward with my career while taking time to learn. Working in the control room [along with the university learning] has helped me develop other valuable skills like working as a team.

Mark’s manager, Arwel Fôn Jones, is also an advocate for the Welsh Government’s flagship apprenticeship programme. He recognises the benefits they bring not only to the individual but to employers as well.

Arwel said: “Once you bring in new faces to the company and the team, they bring new ideas. Whether they’re old or young they can think of different ways to do the work. It’s so important to have a good mix of people.”

“I can’t see a downside to hiring an apprentice. When you develop people and invest in them, you get that investment back tenfold.”

Mark is excited to see what comes next.

He said: “Thinking of the next year, I’m looking forward to finishing the apprenticeship so I can concentrate more of the role I currently have in the station, and then hopefully move to a permanent role as a shift engineer.”

Dinorwig Power Station, where Mark works is known locally as the Electric Mountain, and was regarded as one of the world’s most imaginative engineering and environmental projects when it was first commissioned in 1984.

Today, Dinorwig’s operational characteristics and dynamic response capability are still acknowledged the world over. The station’s six powerful generating units stand in Europe’s largest man-made cavern, using off-peak electricity the six units are reversed as pumps to transport water from the lower reservoir, back to Marchlyn Mawr.

Apprenticeship Week Wales is taking place between 10 and 16 February 2025 and will celebrate the value apprenticeships bring to learners, employers and the wider Welsh economy.
The week will highlight the work being done across the apprenticeship community to promote the positive impact they are having throughout Wales.
For more information about becoming an apprentice, visit www.gov.wales/apprenticeships-genius-decision or call 0800 028 4844.