Higher Engineering Apprentice Review

My role varies depending upon attachment but tends to invovle assuming the role of an engineer in the work area I am assigned to, with greater supervision and guidance. I have currently worked within Service Engineering, Development Engineering and now within Technical Data. The experience varies from deaprtment to department.

New skills I have developed would mainly be technical ability - but as an existing skill my confidence has grown massively with a range of opportunities to interface with colleagues and superiors. A new skill would be the ability to present with confidence, even to those in superior roles.

I feel the description of the job role could have been more accurate, and streaming to a department should be done with some input from apprentices as to where they would like to work. It may not always be possible to be accomodated by the company, but never the less I think an attempt should be made

I feel highly valued working within the teams I have been in, but feel this feedback doesn't form a significant part of my reviews with training staff. This is not the fault of any member of staff, but how the review system is structured (focusing on NVQ and higher education). Whilst the curent metrics need to be discussed in the review, I think attachment feedback should be given some more weight

The program is very well structured and organised - but sometimes it would be better if apprentices could have more of an input to the direction of their career and training

Where my employer acts as my training provider the training is outstanding and cannot be faulted - there is a recent issue with a shortage of NVQ assessors but this is due to redundancies, and is now in hand. Where we attend external institutions for higher education the situation is far worse, and numerous criticisms have been levelled at the quality of the teaching and course - these have now been addressed and action has been taken, but it has taken 2 years for this, despite complaints going back a number of years

I feel the support provided by my employer within the workplace is excellent - however more support where there are issues with external training providers would not go amiss

My salary meets my costs, but it is well known that our salary lies well below other companies - with some commenting that the company is trading on the brand name to recruit talent, rather than offering comparable levels of compensation

Opportunities outside of work are good - I cannot comment on ones offered by my employer as I do not currently make use of them or have had a need to in the past

No

Whilst the training and organisation is outstanding, many other companies offer this standard of training but with far more competitive salaries on offer

I think that in addition to technical ability the skills to organise your own work are crucial. In role the skills I have found most helpful are my people skills, and new-found confidence to speak up and give my input. I would rate these skills above technical knowledge, as knowledge can be gained or taught but 'soft skills' are harder to come by but are very useful in-role