Machinist Review

My job role is a machinist. This involves running and operating some of the most 5 axis cnc milling machines in the world as well as inspecting jobs that have been completed to check they conform to the very high tolerances.

during the apprenticeship I have learnt a lot of new skills as the first year is spent trying out many different area of manufacturing. my current role of a machinist develops these skills further as I spend my time throughout different departments learning on new machines with different people.

I really enjoy my apprenticeship because everyone I meet is great to get along with, the experience I have gained cannot be beaten and we are also paid reasonably well for apprentices.

I feel very well valued at BAE systems as a lot of the employees here are past apprentices and understand what its like and treat us well knowing that we could soon be a fully trained employee working along side them.

the programme is very well organised as the first year is spent trying different trades until we continue in one specific trade for the remainder of the apprenticeship moving around different departments within the workplace developing our skills and experience.

I receive a great support from my training provider as I have a meeting with my assessor every month where we discuss what's going well and what sort of extra work needs to be done to meet my NVQ requirements.

my supervisors throughout my placements give me a lot of support and move me round different sections in the building to make sure I get as much experience as possible within my time in there.

my salary is plenty enough to meet my costs as still being young and living with my parents my living costs are low. my main outgoing are mainly travel costs due to my workplace being in quite a remote location.

there are a lot of opportunities outside of work such as helping out on company stands at large events such as air shows, working abroad, volunteering opportunities and helping out at company events such as apprenticeship road shows.

Yes

joining the apprenticeship at BAE Systems is the best thing I have ever done in life and I don't think there's any other paths I could of took that met what I wanted in terms of education, experience and paid work all in one.

The main advice I could give to anyone applying would be to do your research on the company and really know about there products. use this information to then show how genuinely interested you are in the company at the interview.