Manufacture and Test Apprentice Review

I am a 1st year manufacture a tech apprentice. I have only just started my second placement so haven't done an awful lot that I can talk about yet. My last placement on the other hand I was deeply involved with many different tasks and jobs. Some of these were: performing vibration testing and thermal cycling on a Captor - E receiver, programming CIDs with new firmware, updating the companies CID programming procedure (now the standard procedure to be used when programming these CIDs will be the one that I updated and submitted for review and eventually got uploaded to the approved source, I furthermore interacted with many different people across the department and into other departments too. I thoroughly enjoyed my last placement and learned an extensive amount. Could not fault it.

I have learned many new skills, some of these are: how to programme CIDs with new firmware, how to perform vibration and thermal cycling on a CAPTOR-E Receiver, how to programme a microwave synthesizer, how to handle the Receiver and how to take it in and out of its frame and the safety procedures to follow when doing so, also how to use and test a ESD strap (electrostatic device), the importance of good teamwork within the business and how the departments interlink and effect each other. I have also developed my communication skills as I have been working with many different people who have all been friendly and are always more than happy to answer any questions that I have.

I love my job. I have only been on one 3 month placement and am only a week into my second 3 moth placement but so far I have no complaints what so ever. The apprenticeship has met and exceeded my expectations and I am proud to be a employee of Leonardo MW

I feel very valued by Leonardo MW. In my last placement I was given lots of jobs which all benefited the company, I was never doing something that I thought was not worthwhile. We are constantly told as apprentices and young people that we are the future of the company. I certainly feel valued by Leonardo and I am still proud and excited to have been chosen in the first place to be an apprentice here. We are all valued by the company here, definitely.

Our programme is structured very well indeed. I got taken by Leonardo back in May last year, in August myself and the rest of the first year apprentices began studying at Edinburgh College, here we spent 5-6 months and completed an SVQ2 in Performing Engineering Operations (PEO). This was very useful I believe as doing this course at college gave us an insight into what we could be doing at work and definitely gave us a lot of practice for writing log books. After completion of the PEO we all came on site and completed a two week introduction, this was great as it gave us more of an insight to the business and brought us in slowly and didn't just dump each of us in our first placements straight away. Doing the two week induction was a great idea and it helped us prepare for our placements, which we needed as we had been full time at college for 5-6 months. After this we then each began our first 3 month placement. We have 8 placements at a length of 3 months each and then a final placement which will in the department that you would like to stay in and progress from. I think the Leonardo apprenticeship is organized/structured extremely well and particularly like that we do placements as these give us an insight into the different departments within the business and give us the opportunity to see the company in every aspect and then we can take it upon ourselves to decide where we want to go, in accordance with company requirements obviously. I simply cannot fault our apprenticeship programme.

I receive as much support as I require. If I have a problem or issue I can get help at any time and my supervisor will guide me in the right direction. If I have any questions which I often do then he will happily answer them. What I have found so far is that no question is a stupid question and everyone is always more than happy to help each other out and in particular give apprentices the helping hand and knowledge that we often require. It never seems like a task for my supervisor to give me support, he is always happy to do so.

We each receive as much support as we require. Sometimes will receive more support than we need. Everyone in the apprentice management team are great and I get along with them all really well. If I ever needed anything I know I could go to Nick, Amanda or Michael and they would happily help me out.

My salary is enough to meet my costs, I split my time between my girlfriends house and my families so I do not need to pay rent and such yet. The salary goes up comfortably each year and I want to get my own place with my girlfriend soon and I believe that with the annual increases to my salary I will be able to do this in no time.

There are many extracurricular events that I can and will take part in. We had skills development Scotland in for visits with the Scottish minister Jamie Hepburn a fair few weeks ago and I was involved with these visits. We greeted the visitors and then took them on a tour to Radar, Lasers and MEG, at each of these departments there was an apprentice who gave a ten minute talk and explained the apprenticeship and how they were finding it. After these tours I was actually videoed by Skills Development Scotland answering a few questions about my apprenticeship. I found this experience very beneficial and thoroughly enjoyed it. Just a few days ago myself and around half of the first year apprentices took a trip over to BAE Systems and had a DFM (design for manufacture) workshop here we learned first hand about the importance for having the manufacturing team involved in design and how this can minimise failures and faults being found later in projects. There is constantly opportunities for ourselves to take part in activities, become members of groups (such as charity committee, cross site forum etc.)

Yes

It is an amazing company that is at the forefront of innovation and technology. There is so much that we do here and a great future for those who put the work in. This job can quite easily be a job for life. I don't see why anyone would go elsewhere.

The application process is long, very long but it has to be as there are so many people who apply for the course and they need to narrow down the numbers. At the assessment centre if you are asked to come along then just be yourself, do some research into the business (shows you are interested, know what the company does). And try your best! There is a lot of competition for a spot on a Leonardo apprenticeship so be confident and try your best!