Software Engineering Apprentice Review

Software Engineering Apprentice Monday-Tuesday University part time doing 4 modules a year (term time only) with normal students not exclusive classes. Wednesday-Friday in office working in different placement so work varies depending on where you are in the business, I am currently working as part of a team of 6 but also working with people in different sites across the UK. responsibilities for many different projects currently on going, a website for the business area I am in and work for the actual team I am part of.

No current qualifications but working towards a few Lots of internal/external training courses but especially team building improved my knowledge of a lot of software languages and software lifecycles

Work is enjoyable, teams are great, culture is a bit on the poor side, a lot of pessimistic people around the company. This all meets my expectations and enjoying it all

I would feel more appreciated by managers if the managers if they honoured contracts and actually followed through on pay rises and communication apart from when it suits them! The teams I have been involved in have always trusted me which has increased my confidence.

As I am part of the very first group though the apprenticeship its not got a great organisation/structure but that is expected. We did think some things we have encountered would have been thought about before hand. I feel like support from some managers is great but some in early careers have very poor communication and regularly ignore emails we send.

UCLan support varies from lecturer to lecturer, we have been let down a few times this year. We had an assignment in one of the electronic modules which other electronic students were taught how to use in a different module which we don't do, when we asked for a session to help us with the software it was given, we were then offered a further session which we accepted but the lecturer then tried to withdraw the offer of the extra session which we felt we needed to be able to complete the assignment. We then involved our managers at BAE and quickly got this fixed and the support session took place. Other lecturers I feel like I can go to and get the support I need even though I haven't needed to yet

Early careers I feel like they will support you if you are struggling but will never ask you how you are doing, you have to go to them. Other managers around the business support us very well.

Yes, but in our contract it says that we will have regular pay reviews, I am nearly half way though the apprenticeship without having completed one, when we ask questions of what is happening about them we either get ignored or told they don't know

Annual recruitment fairs which I have helped at each year, we also got a stand at UCAS careers fair this year which was very enjoyable

Yes

Very good company and can gain lots of experience. The one thing I would warn them about is how old fashioned everything is, if they wanted to work on something current and up to date I wouldnt

Talk about how you have managed to balance education/social life before, talk about working in teams e.g. sports teams and DofE