How to become a licensed aircraft engineer in the UK

For a B1.1, B1.3 or B2 licence the experience alone is five years if you learn on the job, or two years after an approved Part-147 basic training course¹, and the course itself is at least 2,400 hours³. Category A takes three years, or one after an approved course¹. Airline apprenticeships run about three years and lead to the Category A modules first¹⁵¹⁷. Then add about 31 working days for the CAA to process the application⁴.

The CAA charges £60 for each module exam attempt and £455 for each licence category⁹. Sitting all 16 B1.1 papers with the CAA and passing each first time comes to £960, so £1,415 with the licence (our arithmetic). Training is the variable part: from £84 plus VAT for a self-study module without its exam²² to about £6,900 plus VAT for every B1.1 module taught by an instructor at one Part-147 school (our sum of its 2026 prices)²³. An apprenticeship costs the apprentice nothing in fees.

Yes. You can take an approved Part-147 course, or work as a mechanic and study the modules yourself; the law sets the experience for each route, not an apprenticeship¹. The section on missing out on an apprenticeship goes through the options.

No. A UK Part-66 licence needs the module exams and the practical experience¹. Some degrees lead to an approved Part-66 certificate that shortens the experience, such as UHI Perth’s four-year BSc¹⁹, but a degree on its own does not shorten the experience, and the academic route to Category C is not available in the UK¹².

UK Part-66 sets a minimum age of 18 and no maximum¹. The experience years are the same at any age, so career changers usually work as a mechanic while they study, and some start with Category A, which needs three years of experience, or one after an approved course¹.

We found no UK option for that. CAA exams are on computer at its venues in Gatwick, Clevedon, Gloucestershire, Rosyth and Oxford⁸, and approved Part-147 schools run their own exam centres²¹. The CAA’s own consultation lists exams held outside approved locations as a cheating concern²⁴.

No. The CAA says it has no mechanism to accept a licence from outside the UK against any of the UK Part-66 criteria¹⁴. EASA module certificates issued before 31 December 2022 are still accepted for ten years from issue, and experience gained abroad can count if the CAA can verify it⁶¹⁴.

Yes, in part. Equivalent military maintenance is accepted, with additional civil experience¹, and the CAA rejects military applicants without 12 months of civil experience⁴. Army REME aviation engineers now have a CAA accreditation scheme with module credits, though every applicant still needs a UK Module 10 pass; schemes for the RAF and Royal Navy are being developed¹³.

Yes, after ten years: the exams must have been passed within the ten years before you apply for the licence¹. In extenuating circumstances the CAA can extend that, for a fee of £183⁷.

Part-66 itself asks for none¹. Apprenticeship employers do: the level 3 standard expects typically four GCSEs at grade 4 or C, including maths, English and a science¹⁵, and KLM UK’s 2027 intake asks for English Language at grade 5 or C¹⁸.