Mechanical Maintainence Techninian Review

my job role is a Mechanical maintenance technician. However in the first two years you complete a BTEC very similar to being at college. the only difference is that you get paid for doing it. Its only on the 2nd and 3rd year when you are actually based on a power station that your job role comes into play.

In my position, I had completed a very similar course in the previous years to starting the apprenticeship. However from the perspective of someone who had never had any engineering experience I feel they would learn a lot. The first two years are taken to complete a L3 BTEC in engineering.

The course itself is fine and relatively pain free. However they put you up in free accomodation (A Navy Base)10 miles away from portsmouth and dont let you have cars with you, and that is enough to ruin the entire experience. it costs 20 pounds in a taxi to get anywahere to do anything, so I spend most of my weekends laid in bed bored out my skull. It really ruins the entire apprenticeship. At the beggining you're told to "make the most of your time down here" however that is rather difficult when you cant drive your car that you pay insurance and road tax for.

fairly valued, they take you on 3 'Life Skills' trips to europe that only cost you £100 plus they give you about 20 pounds a day for food so they pay for themselves. They provide accomodation and food for you (although the food and accomodation are poor they are free) and they still pay a fair wage. Also they pay for your travel home prety much every month which is a bonus. However much like anything its alot easier to get Negative Reports than Positive reports. Im still not sure how to get one.

the programme is very well structured. The first two years are spent at Babcock engineering academy at HMS Sultan, whilst living at HMS Collingwood. The timetable is simple and the course is well spread out. During the summer, you live back at home and work on your power station. doing real life work things. The 3rd and 4th year are all spent back on station like a proper job. This seems like something to look forward to. the salary has a significant step up each year too.

All of the instructors are always willing to help with any work if youre struggling. and there are alot of people who will help you with things outside of work whether its trying to open a new bank account or if you're having issues with something. generally alot of support available.

compared to the training staff, you dont see much of the EDF staff, unless someone has done something wrong. The only thing they seem to do is set inconvinient rules that even the training staff deem to be ridiculous.

The salary is fairly generous conidering in the first two years you do only college work. and due to the fact that all the accomodation and food is provided you'd think that you were going to be rich and save so much money. But due to the fact that if you want to do anything at all you pretty much have to fork out 6 months wages just for a taxi. and lets face it if you only eat the food that is provided, I dont think you'd live all that long. So in reality you end up spending a lot more than you'd originally expect.

The only real thing are the aforementioned life skill trips to Budapest, Berlin and Lyon which are good oppertunities and get you out of the workplace for a few days. In year 2 you get the oppertunity to visit 5 different countries of your choice across europe as long as you do something educational along the way. Thats about it though.

Yes

The scheme is fairly easy for the first 2 years so its probably worth sticking out just for the easy money. Howver do prepare for being bored out your mind anytime you have any sort of spare time whatsoever.

Maake sure you know a bit about basic engineering principles, Research the company as they like facts and make sure you know how your power station works and you should be fine.