Apprentice Mechanical Fitter Review

Day to day activities can vary from producing things in the workshop, sometimes using machinery such as mills and lathes, to getting delivery in the classroom for our course units that include health and safety and maintenance.

My skills in the workshop have increased dramatically and I can now produce work on the machinery with confidence, of which my confidence in my work wasn't very well developed prior to starting the apprenticeship.

Overall I do enjoy the programme and I feel like I'm learning quite a lot, however classroom time can drag on quite a bit when everyone finishes the work but there are still scheduled days left so we have nothing to do and no work.

I feel like I'm part of the company and people do try to make sure that I'm included, my manager and other instructors always have a chat with me to make sure that I'm getting along well and I appreciate seeing that people want me to do well. However I have noticed that other people in my apprenticeship get treated unfairly due to their young age or the reputation they have garnered, my group in particular does receive a lot of blame for things that they haven't actually done due to past mistakes.

The programme in general has a defined structure however a lot of things have been changed at short notice by being added or cancelled which leads to a lot of confusion about what we need to do.

My training providers offer help when it's needed with work and they always make sure that you're on task and understand what you need to do, especially the Babcock instructors. Therefore I have no complaints about the support.

My employer offers a lot of support in the form of two safeguarding officers as well as a phoneline to a counselling service when needing which I think is a really great thing for the company to offer its employees as it shows they really care about our health.

I feel like my salary is appropriate for the monthly costs that I have such as rent and travel, I always manage to save money each month so I think it meets my costs quite well.

There has been an instance of overtime that I got to be a part of, there are also regular opportunities for apprentices to take part in open days for the company.

Yes

Overall I think it is a good programme and they provide good training for their apprentices to prepare them for their future.

I would say definitely prepare questions for the interview, and having prior experience in the industry isn't as important as you might think (though it does help) because the company will teach you all you need to knew in order for you to succeed.