Higher Apprentice Review

For the first year of the apprenticeship I am in college full time, completing a HNC. In the following years I will be doing placements within the company, with day release one day a week for two years to complete a HND, provided I achieve at least a merit in my HNC in the first year.

I have both learnt new skills and developed existing skills during my year at college. I have built on my practical experience in the practical tasks, and learnt new knowledge and skills in the theory side of the course. I have also done some extra training courses through the company such as a document writing course.

I enjoy the program a great deal, I get on well with my colleagues and the instructors at the college and I enjoy the challenge of the work. It has so far met my expectations.

I definitely feel valued by BAE systems. They invest a great deal into their apprenticeship schemes and recognise that apprentices are the future of the company.

The programme is fairly well structured. There were some technical and organisational issues at the start of the course at the college but once those were ironed out there have been few issues.

I receive a great deal of support from the training providers. The lecturers at the college are excellent and will give any help and support they can when required, and will go out of their way to find the answers to any issues if they can't provide them immediately.

The support from the employer is generally very good. They don't manage to come to the college to see us once a week like they said they would try to do, but they are easily accessible by email if there are any problems.

The salary is very reasonable for this level of apprenticeship. it covers all my costs fine at the moment. I live local to the scheme so my travel costs are fairly minimal and currently I live at home so I don't really pay much in terms of living costs.

There have been some opportunities outside of work, such as IMechE talks about becoming chartered/registered, the opportunity to volunteer as a STEM ambassador. The apprentices also sometimes organise their own events. There is a reasonable amount of activities to do in the local area.

Yes

I would recommend BAE systems to a friend as they invest a lot into their apprentice schemes and offer a high level of training. the company is also very broad and there is lots of opportunity to progress your career in the company. The salary is very competitive for the level of apprenticeship also.

I would recommend that they researched into the company for the interview as they will be asked questions about that, as well as researched some basic knowledge about the products the branch of the company they are applying for deal in (for example the classes of ships if they are applying to Maritime Services and some basic knowledge on the systems used on warships). I would also recommend that they have a project to show that showcases their engineering knowledge and experience well, or shows how they can self manage and their creativity if they don't necessarily have an engineering based project to show. Anything that shows they are willing to learn if they are not experienced with engineering already.