apprenticeship
What this programme is for
DevOps is the discipline that sits between development and operations, the people who automate, accelerate and harden the delivery of software into production. Fast, reliable, secure.
This programme is for engineers working in or moving into DevOps, platform engineering, site reliability or cloud infrastructure roles. You may be a developer who wants to build stronger operational skills, or an ops professional moving into automation and continuous delivery. Either way, this programme develops the technical depth and collaborative skills that define a strong DevOps engineer.
You’ll work with real pipelines, real infrastructure and real codebases throughout, not sandboxed environments. Every skill you build, you apply immediately in your organisation.
What you'll cover
The programme covers all the knowledge, skills and behaviours required for the End-Point Assessment, built around real challenges in your organisation.
Engineering foundations
- DevOps principles, culture and ways of working
- Source control, Git and collaborative development practices
- Continuous integration and automated testing (CI/CD, TDD)
- Cloud infrastructure, Infrastructure-as-Code and deployment strategies
- Monitoring, observability and incident diagnosis using Prometheus and Grafana
Security, architecture and collaboration
- Security and risk management embedded into DevOps (DevSecOps)
- Architecture, systems thinking and API integration
- Continuous improvement, retrospectives and team collaboration
- Container orchestration with Docker and Kubernetes
- Scripting and automation with Python and Bash
Knowledge
- CI/CD pipelines and delivery automation
- Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform, Ansible)
- Cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP)
- Containerisation with Docker and Kubernetes
- Monitoring and observability tooling
Skills
- Building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines
- Writing Infrastructure-as-Code
- Diagnosing incidents and conducting post-mortems
- Automating testing and deployment
- Implementing security controls in pipelines (DevSecOps)
Behaviours
- Continuous improvement mindset
- Collaborative and cross-functional working
- Ownership of reliability and performance
- Security-first thinking
- Analytical problem solving
Tools you'll work with
Build and deploy
- Git and GitHub or GitLab
- Jenkins, CircleCI or GitHub Actions
- Docker and Kubernetes
- Terraform and Ansible
- AWS, Azure or GCP
Monitor and secure
- Prometheus and Grafana
- ELK Stack or Datadog
- SonarQube and OWASP ZAP
- Bash and Python scripting
- Postman and API testing tools
AI-enhanced tools
- AI-driven pipeline delay and bottleneck analysis
- Automated code review and test coverage detection
- AI-assisted infrastructure performance optimisation
- Anomaly detection and predictive failure alerting
- Automated vulnerability identification in code and CI/CD pipelines
Programme specification
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This programme is hands-on from day one. You’ll work with real pipelines, real infrastructure and real security challenges in your organisation. No toy projects.
Monthly workshops: live, interactive sessions. Real engineering scenarios, CI/CD walkthroughs and security challenges built in from the start.
1:1 coaching: your Technical Coach is an experienced DevOps engineer. They’ll support your pipeline work, infrastructure projects and portfolio development in your actual environment.
Workplace engineering projects: pipeline builds, IaC implementations, incident investigations, security reviews. Real engineering work that goes directly into your portfolio.
Independent study: supported reading, certification preparation and self-directed technical practice to deepen your skills between sessions.
Formal three-way progress reviews every 12 weeks
- Written feedback on all work returned within 10 working days
- Technical guidance on pipelines, infrastructure and security applied to your environment
- Smart Assessor portfolio support against the DevOps Engineer KSBs
- Mock EPA and targeted preparation before your assessment date
Pipeline documentation, IaC scripts, incident reports, security assessments, OTJ logs and reflective accounts, all in Smart Assessor. Your coach feeds back in the platform. Your line manager can contribute employer observations and witness statements.
Skills England requires a minimum of off-the-job training hours for this apprenticeship. Your coach plans and records this with you from the start. OTJ activities include workshops, coaching, engineering projects, independent technical study and EPA preparation.
Level 2 English and maths required before your End-Point Assessment. Identified at induction and planned from the start.
The EPA is conducted by an independent EPAO. For DevOps Engineer it typically includes a work-based project report and presentation, and a professional discussion. Your project draws on real engineering work from the programme, pipelines you’ve built, systems you’ve improved, security you’ve embedded.
Your coach prepares you with at least one full mock before your assessment date.
Where this takes you
Typical progression routes
Senior DevOps Engineer or Platform Engineer
Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)
Cloud Infrastructure Engineer or Architect
DevSecOps specialist roles
Engineering Lead or Head of Platform
Your onboarding journey
Here's what to expect before your learning begins.
1
Pre-enrolment
Expression of interest
Application form
2
Initial assessment
Online maths and English check
Diagnostic skills review
3
Enrolment
Sign Commitment Statement
Submit documents
4
Induction
Attend induction workshop
Set up Smart Assessor
5
Final onboarding
Compliance check
Programme begins
Ready to build faster, more reliable systems?
Talk to the La Fosse Academy team.
Enquire now