Apprentice Engineer Review

My role currently varies every few months as I continue to move around the company. Currently I am working in a systems department called tornado mc&dl. It involves looking at mission data and analysing it, the team also contributes by dealing with customers and suppliers.

I have a lot more technical knowledge since joining BAE systems as an apprentice. Some Physics and Maths knowledge I had before I joined but apart from that and aircraft knowledge is simply that which has been taught to me since 2014. I have definitely improved some skills, my hand fitting skills had previously not been used when in school and so anything hands on has been learnt from scratch pretty much. electrical skills ahave developed and I can also do some basic programming as a result of one of my previous placements. Working well within a team is something the company has helped improve me on, I have never had an issue with this anyway but the company encourages you to know when to use your own knowledge and when to listen to somebody else.

I have enjoyed my time in the apprenticeship up until this point. There have been some good interesting placements and some not so interesting placements but the teams have all been helpful and welcoming and encouraged development. Any problems that I have ever had I can find sufficient help fairly quickly.

I feel valued, though some teams appreciate apprentices more than others. Some placements give apprentices a lot of work and help them to get involved in a lot of different jobs in the department. Other's give you certain jobs that are less relevant but they still use these to help you develop. I think some of those jobs are made to test you in less obvious ways without affecting department work which in a lot of ways is a good strategy.

The programme is very well organised in my opinion. If any changes to our schedule are being made they do not have any impact of when the apprenticeship is completed as they are done in a way that doesn't slow you down. Any training courses are done in times best suited for you so that they do not affect college work. A lot of help is offered to apprentices when finding your placements and you also have the option to find your own which are more likely to be well suited to you.

I recieve a lot of support from everyone on the training programme. Anybody you ask on the training team is eager to help and they always have an answer to my questions.

Managers always provide adequate support, I have never really needed to take problems as high as the manager but whenever I speak to them I am always assured of help and support. Usually I just ask members of team around me who I see more regularly as problems have not been serious.

I am on a good salary and it has left me in a good stead for the future and I can easily do what I want to outside of work time as well as saving money. The salary seems to increase at a good rate and the company offers you good support in looking after your money and building it up.

Yes there are a lot of events to get involved in within the company outside of working hours and inside working hours. Some apprentices on ambassador duties are granted leave for the day to go out and encourage young people to follow the same path they have by visiting schools. There are a lot of workshops to get involved in, a lot around airshows and big company events and some are even opportunities to help deliver training workshops abroad.

Yes

BAE systems looks after the people within the company. You are treated very well and given a good salary with some interesting work. The community looks after eachother and any problems you have are dealt with well and in good time.

To make sure that the application was well written and showed off all the skills they had and any achievements that could be valauble to the company. I would tell them to be confident in the interview and to make a good project that they consider to be different and interesting to showcase their skills. When in the company I would say to them to not miss out on any opportunity to get involved in different projects and to be vocal about what they want to accomplish on their apprenticeship.