Apprentice Review

My first year was all training, I'm now just over halfway in my second year and I am making my way through placements around the company, this involves me working with an area for 6-12 weeks and completing individual tasks relative to the area. We are still completing training one day a week at college with bring home assignments that make work difficult to manage sometimes.

I have developed new skills in communicating through a company, learning more about how the chain of management work and what development levels go into a role. I have developed skills around soldering, CAD design and fault finding as well.

I enjoy working with different areas and meeting new people but work can sometimes be overwhelming between the training centre and work in different placements, I find that support, while offered, is sometimes limited and does not fully support you through until completion, communication between training centres and employers could be better developing a better environment of support for the apprentices.

There is a strong laid out structure for the apprenticeship but this is let down by the inconsistencies of work, while a range of placements can provide a good look into where you want to work in the company, areas that have prepared poorly or have limited experience with an apprentice can end up giving an inaccurate representation of the area.

Our first few weeks we are given lots of input and introductions, we are shown around site and sent off to the training centre, after that they check in once every 2-3 months with 5/10 minute discussions, issues at the training centre are deemed not their issue and must be dealt with internally. Once progressed to the 2nd year this support gets even thinner with the arrival of new apprentices.

the training centre is split into two sections, one being the BTEC section and the other being general training, support during general training is unmatched, the tutors are supportive and willing to help you learn. The BTEC tutors are completely different, ranging from sitting beside you supporting you to not answering emails or providing feedback that says more than "this is wrong" not explaining why or how you can improve it.

Some of the content we have learned across BTEC and other training has come into practice and allowed us to fully engage in our placements, however some training is outdated with little to no relation to current items that we come across in our further job roles.

None that are readily available, some teams do have extra activities that they do but most are down to word of mouth, some groups get involved with networking events but these are limited to specific areas of the company.

No

Personally I think that joining BAE systems is something you should prepare more before coming in, I personally wouldn't recommend the apprentice scheme I am on but would recommend a more direct route or better qualified route.

Aim as high as you can when applying and ensure to make strong bonds with your group, do your best to get on with your tutors and come in with an open mind