Electrical engineering apprentice Review

The first 2 years of my apprenticeship is spent down at the Babcock engineering academy in Gosport, this first year of the apprenticeship is learning general skills in engineering, this includes electrical, c&i and mechanical, the second year you get streamed into a discipline.

As I am only in my first year and since I have already completed the NVQ L2 qualification I didn't learn much in the practical aspect of the units I have already done however I did learn no skills on the electrical units.

The programme from what I know so far is really good, I like the fact how we do both theory and practical. It's good knowing the knowledge behind the practical assessments we do and it's good how you can see them link together.

I feel very valued by eDF energy! I'm a personal note that have really shown how much they care for their employees, I had a medical issue but eDF energy paid for me to get it resolved and paid for private treatment.

The program is very organised, they're some aspects of it I think could be more organised if it were to be computerised such as the way work marked and logged. But other than that I think the structure of the course is good. Although there was a mismatch in the organisation which meant that our class had to split a lesson and do two halfs of it at different times which meant we did get some skill fade when doing it again.

The support we receive is very good and all the lecturers and assessors are always willing to help. Even after work hours many of the instructors are accessible by email so they are always willing to help.

I personally have received a lot of support from my employer and I get a lot of emails from my power station asking how in getting on and if there's anything they can do to help.

The salary is good on an apprentice pay and I like the fact how it goes up depending on our progress which really gives the push to succeed!

EDF provide lots of opportunities to do activities outside of work! They provide accommodation which has lots of sporting activities free of charge! We also go on life skills visits to different European country's each year which I found very useful and it has given me the skills and confidence to travel to different country's, which I am putting to use this summer on going to a country I have never been to before!

Yes

I would recommend my apprenticeship to anybody! It's a great company with loads of opportunities and endless possibilities of different jobs to do! Due to the size of the company it's possible to travel the world with eDF energy!

I would reccomend researching a lot about the company before going to the interview as they're a lot of questions about the company and how power stations work. There is also a practical assessment in the interview so research is advised.