Building Services Engineering
Senior Technician Level 4

The broad purpose of the occupation is to bring the built environment to life by connecting up the buildings we live and work in, ensuring they meet the needs of the people, plant, and services they need to accommodate, whilst providing comfort, building safety and security and efficiency through ever increasing environmental safeguarding.

Building services engineering senior technicians use their technical knowledge to deliver, or address problems with, building services systems that are to be designed, manufactured, installed, managed or maintained, within a building. The main types of building services systems are mechanical (heating, ventilation, and cooling), electrical (power, lighting etc) and public health (water services and drainage).

In these areas, building services engineering senior technicians may consider:

• Safety and security, including emergency lighting, security and alarm systems, fire detection and prevention, emergency back-up systems, inclusive access, and flow through buildings for both people and equipment, including escalators and lifts.

• Efficiency and sustainability, including the capture, supply and use of energy (electrical, mechanical, and other power systems, renewable energy systems (such as solar, wind or heat pump sources), water supply and management (including plumbing and drainage), communication networks to aid integrated systems and intelligent buildings, and façade engineering.

• Comfort and control, including heating and ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration, and lighting (artificial and natural) and acoustics.

Building services engineering senior technicians use and apply their technical knowledge, underpinned by scientific principles and theories, propose numerous suitable techniques, procedures and methods to undertake and deliver building services engineering solutions. They need to source, review, analyse and evaluate a range of information and data, perform advanced calculations, and analyse building services engineering problems to reach proven solutions.

Senior technicians will prepare, produce and present building services engineering information, designs and documentation, with regard for the practical need to install, maintain, manage or improve building services equipment and systems, and to relevant codes of practice and industry standards (for example, BSI Flex 8670, or managing information over the whole life cycle of a built asset using Building Energy Managing Systems (BEMS) or Building Information Modelling (BIM) via ISO 19650), to statutory and regulatory requirements (such as the Building Safety Act), and in compliance with health, safety and wellbeing requirements.

They use appropriate analytical and computational software, including engineering analysis software (such as CAD or Revit) or digital data modelling systems, such as Building Information Management (BIM), recognising the limitations of the techniques used and where continuous improvement may be useful.

With the need to mitigate the detrimental effects on the environment and an increased drive for sustainability, senior technicians will need to consider the whole life cycle of a built asset, ensuring building service engineering systems and projects align with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG), respond to net-zero carbon emissions targets and are compliant with climate change acts, and environmental and sustainability policies and legislation.

Building services engineering senior technicians will also inform and manage tasks, team members and resources within their allocation, but also contribute to broader and more complex building services engineering solutions, applying appropriate project management knowledge and techniques, use quality systems and risk assessment procedures to mitigate risks, and improve safe systems of work. Senior technicians may also commission, carry out, or review site inspections or surveys, report progress against project plans, or check specified technical aspects of design, site or manufacturing activities. 

In their daily work, employees interact with their line manager, typically a senior building services engineer or site manager, to confirm programmes of work, agree individual and team responsibilities, budgets and resources, which support the delivery of wider plans across building services engineering projects; these teams could include other technicians or specialist contractors for which they may be responsible for, engineers across a range of disciplines, such as mechanical, electrical or public health engineering, from various employer types (e.g. clients, consultancies, contractors), and project managers, where their collective outputs will be used to produce building services engineering solutions that are fit for purpose, safe, secure, environmentally sustainable, and meet customer and industry specifications. 

Senior technicians will also be exposed to other professional disciplines, such as civils, lighting and acoustics engineers, surveyors, architects, planners, environmental practitioners, or legal teams. As well as liaising with internal colleagues across a variety of multidisciplinary areas, some senior technicians will also be responsible for working with customers, suppliers, manufacturers, and stakeholders or with representatives from appropriate regulatory bodies.

Building services engineering senior technicians, depending on their employer, will spend their time in an office environment, working on site, working remotely or a combination of these. There is also potential for visiting customers, suppliers, or manufacturers.

Employees are responsible for delivering building services engineering technical solutions, ensuring accuracy and quality, for which they are responsible for the technical management of, within agreed time and resource limits, compliant with health and safety regulations, to industry, regulatory and legislative standards, such as the Building Safety Bill, and to broadly defined specifications.

Senior technicians will also supervise other team members, communicating, agreeing, and managing tasks that others complete, ensuring these meet appropriate standards and specified outcomes, and that work is carried out in a safe environment and the wellbeing of those involved is safeguarded.

Throughout the course you will learn how to;

Propose building services engineering solutions to well-defined technical problems, by preparing, producing and presenting engineering diagrams and documents, to engineering specifications, industry codes of practice, regulations, standards, and procedures.

Deliver appropriate and effective technical building services engineering solutions, by selecting, reviewing and evaluating data and technical information, and by using a range of appropriate engineering methods and processes, including the undertaking of complex calculations.

Manage building services tasks and supervise team members, by applying engineering management principles to effectively identify, organise and use resources within projects to specification, whilst recording and reporting against agreed budgets or costs, targets and timescales, and with consideration for quality, safety and the contracted terms and conditions.

Contribute to the design of building services systems, checking the systems designed meet the requirements of the end user or business need, and that relevant industry standards and procedures are adhered to.

Use a range of practical and workshop skills, selecting and applying appropriate materials, equipment, technologies and processes, to plan, undertake and analyse building services activities.

Use analytical and engineering analysis software (such as Computer Aided Design (CAD) or Revit), digital data modelling systems (such as Building Information Management (BIM) or Building Energy Management Systems (BEMS)) to inform, develop or manage building service engineering solutions recognising the limitations of the techniques used.

Ensure compliance with health, safety & welfare requirements, apply safe systems of work, for example the Construction (Design and Management) regulation, understanding the safety implications of their role, ensuring they apply and improve safe systems of work.

Identify, evaluate and mitigate risks associated with their own work, and in the projects and activities they are responsible for.

Comply with relevant policies, standards, regulations, legislation, strategies, technical guidance, and codes of practice, for example Building Safety legislation or BSI Flex 8670, ensuring they are interpreted, and communicated correctly and appropriately.

Comply with environmental policies and legislation, practice sustainable principles, and evaluate how these impact on the building services engineering projects they work on, and how these assist in the achievement of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG) and net-zero carbon emissions.

Use quality and information management, and assurance systems and processes, for example ISO 19650, recognising the need for these and their role in continuous improvement.

Communicate and liaise effectively with own project team, and those in other teams, such as customers or specialist contractors, and with internal or external stakeholders, respecting the need for the security of data and information.

Work reliably and effectively independently without close supervision, and as a member of a team, taking responsibility for their own work, and supervising others where appropriate.

Ensure compliance with equality, diversity & inclusion (EDI) and ethical standards, recognising the importance of these in the workplace.

Plan and maintain own learning and skills development by carrying out continuing professional development in line with professional codes of conduct and/or industry specifications and obligations, and promoting the benefits of this to others.

This course is completed on a ‘Day Release’ basis meaning that you will spend one day per week during term time at college with the rest of the time spent in the workplace gaining practical experience.

An EPA is an assessment at the end of your apprenticeship. It will assess you against the knowledge, skills, and behaviours (KSBs) in the occupational standard. Your training will cover the KSBs. The EPA is your opportunity to show an independent assessor how well you can carry out the occupation you have been trained for.

Assessment methods

Project with Report

You will complete a project and write a report. You will be asked to complete a project. The EPAO will give you suggested project titles. The report should be a maximum of 3500 words (with a 10% tolerance).

You will have 6 weeks to complete the project and submit the report to the EPAO.

You need to prepare and give a presentation to an independent assessor. Your presentation slides and any supporting materials should be submitted at the same time as the project output. The presentation with questions will last at least 30 minutes. The independent assessor will ask at least 5 questions about the project and presentation.

Professional Discussion Underpinned by a Portfolio of Evidence

You will have a professional discussion with an independent assessor. It will last 40 minutes. They will ask you at least 6 questions. The questions will be about certain aspects of your occupation. You need to compile a portfolio of evidence before the EPA gateway. You can use it to help answer the questions.

You will work as part of a project team and be provided with your very own Training Portfolio when you join up to our apprenticeship programme tailor made to support you every step of the way.

Our customised ‘Training Pyramids’ outline your structured objectives and goals clearly defining the 3 key transitioning stages you will pass through, during your development.

• Level 1                 Knowledge and Understanding
• Level 2                 Application of Knowledge
• Level 3                 Responsibility and Ownership

We work nationally meaning that your on site work experience could involve you travelling or staying away from home. We strongly believe this gives you a unique and exciting opportunity to work on a variety of different projects and sets our apprenticeships apart. Don’t worry, although it can be daunting at first our experienced teams are always on hand to provide help and support. After all 79% of our site team and 32% of our office personnel started as an apprentice with us too so they understand exactly what you are going through.

A BTEC Extended Diploma, Diploma, Level 3 Advanced Apprenticeship or one/two A level (s), in a relevant subject (maths, science, geography).

In addition applicants will require a minimium of grades 4-9 in English, Maths, Science and 2 other subjects.