Mechanical Engineer Review

I am a mechanical engineering apprentice at the Fawdon factory. My day to day roles are now working on shift as a technician answering phone calls for breakdowns on sugar packing machines and carrying out productive maintenance activities. I attend college on a weekly basis, one day a week to achieve my HNC level qualification. Working in maintenance I don't know what I am going to be doing when I come to work as I act as a reactive maintenance engineer as well as carrying out projects over the year, this makes coming to work exciting.

Since starting the apprenticeship (straight from school) I have learnt an awful lot and now feel confident to receive a phone call for a break down and can carry out the work effectively and safely without any help. As well as the technical side of the job, the theory comes from college as well as work where I now have my Level 3 mechanical engineering qualification and will have my HNC qualification come the end of the year. Throughout the year I will attend courses like pneumatics training and pump/bearing courses which help build my general knowledge of engineering. These courses are great and everything as a whole will set me up well for when I come out of my time as a mechanical engineer.

I enjoy coming to work as a maintenance engineer as I may not know what jobs I will be doing that day as it will be reactive maintenance to breakdowns. The people I work along side make coming to work enjoyable as well as educational and it is a great company to work for. As soon as I got the job I knew it would be a great place to work and has lived up to my expectations fully.

I feel very appreciated by nestle as every year we are given a pay rise which reflects on our performance. Also they are putting all of this money into our education as well as giving us a job at the end of it as a valued part of the nestle team. As well as Nestle, My college have ceremony's to celebrate our achievements every year and this is where we are presented with our certificates. In the last year, the jobs I have been trusted with just goes to prove how valued I am as an apprentice after only 3 years of learning.

The apprenticeship programme at Fawdon has been very well organised as we have know what is expected of us, what we need to achieve and when by. The training and guidance we receive from work and college is excellent. We have regular reviews from work and college so they can monitor our progress.

As well as work and college, we can easily contact the training provider if we have any issues or wait until our 3 monthly review to bring up any concerns where they are happy to listen and help. The tutor we have is keen to get us out of our time and get us through our assessments (as well as us!) which is great.

I receive a lot of help from my employer. Not only my manager but from the technicians and operators I see every day at work. They are all very approachable and happy to help at any time if they can.

The salary is remarkable from Nestle, and depending on performance, it only goes up from your first year and up once again when the apprenticeship is finished. It is more than enough to cover travel costs etc.

There are a lot of external events outside of nestle which I have took the opportunity to take part in. These have been school visits and presentations promoting apprenticeships which I was more than happy to help as more young people need to know how beneficial apprenticeships can be.

Yes

It is a great place to work, the people are friendly, it has a good working atmosphere and the salary is good.

Be confident. Nestle love people who are confident and not afraid to speak up.