Engineering Technician Review

three days a week, I rotate around the company, spending 3 month placements with various departments to give me a rounded view of the Plant. Placements consist of a mixture of shadowing people, attending meetings, and undertaking tasks to aid projects. I spend the other 2 days at university studying for a degree in Mechanical Engineering.

I am learning lots of theoretical knowledge from my university course. At work, my technical knowledge and skills such as team working and communication are improving with each new placement. I have undertaken a course in lean manufacturing also.

I enjoy the mixture of work experience and theoretical learning. Most people are happy to help me learn from them and it is a friendly environment to work in. The only real downside is that the programme could be organised better, with more coordination and communication between certain groups.

I feel valued by BMW in that they are inveting an awful lot of money in me before I have given them much in return. The training managers are all veyr friendly and helpful, and provide regular opportunities to discuss how I am getting on.

The organisation of the program is the main downside of it. Whilst on paper the program offers a great opportunity, once you are here you find that the organisation is quite chaotic. This is partly down to the nature of the business, but we often find ourselves in pretty quiet departments and are not given much to do. This could be improved by department managers being given more warning about apprentices coming into their areas.

I always feel that the training managers are avilable to talk to whenever you need them and so this makes me feel supported.

My main work contacts are the training managers; most queries go through them and they support me well. If I have any issues they are happy to help.

We are paid very well as apprentices, recieving performance dependent pay rises every six months. I have alwasy been able to rent in Oxford and pay all bills on my wage, with this getting easier with every pay rise.

Most departments go on the odd work night out which we often get invited to. Every year the company have a charity which they support and we are wncouraged to undertake findraising for it. We also get involved in Comic Relief and Children in Need. Although we can get discounts at a local gym, it would be good if the Plant had its own gym and/or sports team(s); this could be a good way to socialise with colleagues away from work.

Yes

As a whole, it is a good place to work as its in interesting and you get paid well. There are areas which could be inproved, such as excessive department politics and better social opportunities, but no work place is perfect.

Show a passion for the brand and cars; that is the reason we're here after all. Any previous work experience is a bonus, even a saturday job, is a good way to show that you can turn up to work on time and work with others.