Design Engineering Apprentice at Siemens Review

My daily tasks are working with my own team and others to complete projects that have assigned to said team. I work on a variety of different activities from location designs, to transmittal forms. I communicate with other employees to give and collect relevant technical information required to complete activities within projects. I have many responsibilities as a employee of Siemens and a member of my team, including that my design work has been done to the best of my ability, I am clear and direct with my communication, I do what I am asked by managers and other employees, that I comply with Siemens working regulations at all times and much more. As of the moment I primarily work on two projects. Durham coast and north Lincolnshire, But I has also help any other team and project when needed. On Tuesdays I am at Leeds city college doing my level 3 course in electrical/electronic engineering with 2 other apprentices from Siemens that joined the company at the same time as me.

I have learnt many new skills and already gained many qualifications. I have passed or higher in my first year of college doing my level 3 electrical/electronic engineering course. Along side this I have also completed my PTS (personal track safety) course, BST (basic signal training) course, MOD 5 course and many others. These courses have been conducted both at my place of work and away from it. I feel I have become a reliable and useful member of a team and employee for Siemens despite it being my first ever full time job.

I enjoy my apprenticeship very much as it presents many opportunity's for me in life and in the workplace. I have had and taken the opportunity to travel offsite to other Siemens sites and talk to different members of staff and gain more knowledge and connections. I have also supported a member of staff at a award ceremony as they had won a award. I had the opportunity to meet hundreds of Siemens and other railway company apprentices which was a very rewarding experience.

I believe as I have said that I am a reliable and useful employee at Siemens, my manager has done internal reviews on my performance and has said the same and that he has no problems with me at all. Unfortunately due to the nature of the projects and the timing of my integration with the team I have not received the variety of work that both I and my manager wanted but due to new projects starting I should be receiving it shortly.

The organization of my programme is very good at work. I have regular check ups with managers and apprentice helpers who help to guide me toward what needs to be done and give me the information to get it done. We have, however encountered a few problems in the past which took some months to resolve, which was down to poor planning on part of our course.

When ever there is a problem one way or another it is fixed. Whether they teach me what I need to know or give me the tools so I can teach or find the information out for myself. My provider and Employees are always happy and available at some point to help me with any task work or college base3d that needs to be done.

I have the ability to get plenty of support from my employer through HR and Apprentice managers. I, however, have not needed to utilize this as I don't have any problems big enough that it requires them. The support is there for us if we need it however i cannot comment on the quality of the support and whether it helps as, like mentioned, I have not needed it.

Since I live at home I do not particularly have many costs at all so my pay packet covers my professional and personal life easily. I have a nice sized pension building up and personal savings too which will eventually go towards me possibly renting a flat in the local area. I also have a car to run and my monthly salary also covers all these costs too.

We have had many opportunity's to volunteer outside of work for a huge variety of things. IRSE meetings, Science fares even electric F1. I went to the F1 day and really enjoyed myself, it was nice to be there as part of the Siemens team and experience something like that. I am definitely keeping an eye out for the same this year or something similar.

Yes

As it is a growing industry that pays very well and is essentially a job set out for you for life even not with Siemens. You are provided with the skills and qualifications to excel in both a personal and proffesional capacity. The help and support is always there if needed and the wage is really good for an apprenticeship, almost being the same as a full-time minimum wage job.

If you are thinking of applying to Siemens there are a few key things to remember. Be honest and be yourself. Always try your best, Any experience is good experience and to never doubt yourself. AS I originally came to the interview as practice as I thought I never even had a chance of getting the offer, but the next day I got the call that changed my life.