Higher Apprentice Review

I was recruited as a Higher Apprentice, Initially I was based in more of a design role and spent much of my time in an office looking at designs and drawings of future product. As an apprentice I have the opportunity to move placements and have completed 4 different placements over the last year and a half after completing college. These include Design and Rig Testing of parts, Manufacturing process improvements, Specifying and purchasing of machinery for a new facility and, Researching and updating drawings

I have learnt and developed many skills, I have had leadership opportunities and developed project management skills. I have been given projects where my research, analysis, and problem solving skills have grown. Also in day to day work I have had to communicate through different mediums to colleagues, customers and suppliers and this has helped my confidence and skills progress in this area.

The work based portion of my apprenticeship has been excellent, I have been able to be self directed to pick different areas of the business I would like to experience and have been given some stretching tasks that have been interesting and provided opportunities to learn. However the Education part of the apprenticeship has been less good, There have been challenges with the organisation of the FDSC and NVQ parts of the framework.

In general I feel values by Rolls Royce, locally all my colleagues understand the importance of the apprenticeship and push me to achieve my best and promote me to others. Sometimes within the local training teams I feel less valued as issues raised locally can take quite a long time to be resolved, and feedback can feel like its being ignored As an organisation there has been publications which state the importance of the apprenticeship and publicise it to all Rolls Royce employees

While there is a clear structure for what needs to be achieved as part of the apprenticeship the organisation of these parts has been lacking. In finding placements I have found this good as it has enabled me to be self directed finding work which I want to experience and I have enjoyed being self directed. In the FDSC and NVQ parts of the apprenticeship I feel like there has been a lack of organisation and I have had to push hard to try and make sure that the requirements are met within the deadlines

The college which Rolls Royce uses as a training provider on my site is very experiences at delivering the Practical skills and lower levels of education, I found the support for this good. However for the FDSC I found the support to be very poor. I feel they found it difficult to recruit staff on sufficient knowledge and experience to teach this and I think this may be a problem many colleges face when teaching a university level degree as most of the candidates would choose to be university lecturers.

As a whole Rolls Royce is fairly supportive, in the training department at lower levels they can sometimes be slow to respond to issues and I have had to escalate problems higher at which point they are usually solved. When I am on placement the business sector that I am working with and my managers and colleagues are usually very supportive and are most often my first port of call.

I live in a shared house away from my family home and found the salary to be sufficient. I have quite frugal living costs and would say its more than enough to cover these, the progression in salary through the apprenticeship makes things easier as well.

Rolls Royce has a very active apprentice association. This is great way to meet people and subsidises lot of different activities. I have also taken the opportunity to get involved in STEM events through work and have been to air shows and into local schools. In my year we have a relatively small intake and the apprentices often meet outside of work.

Yes

I went to university for a year before leaving to join Rolls Royce as an apprentice. University did not suit me and I don't think it suits everyone. The more structured approach of an apprenticeship combining work with learning suited me far better as I could see the practical applications of the material that I was learning. I think Rolls Royce is a good company to work for that really values its employees and its workforce has an appreciation for the importance of apprentices.

Be honest in your application and try to highlight the activities or interests you have that show your genuine interest in engineering as well as your academic ability. Remember the application process takes into account how well your personality will fit with the role as well as how you present yourself on paper.