Engineering Apprentice Review

Currently I am on a 3 month training placement on dynamic cabling and IPC soldering training. After this placement I will be starting various 2 month placements on the shop floor, until in my third and fourth years I will be in the engineering office doing longer engineering placements. With an exception of the training placement, my day to day role is typically to support the person who's placement I am on, to offer assistance and to learn about that area of manufacture.

My first placement was an engineering placement which is the first year MBDA have tried this (putting 1st years into engineering). From day 1 there was a lot to learn so it was a real challenge to understand and remember all of the processes, abbreviations and names of everything that the manufacturing engineers use during their day. By the end of the placement it was like second nature and working with team was really fun. On my training placement currently, I have already learnt a lot even though when writing this I'm just finishing my second week. Ray, our trainer is very knowledgeable and teaches us by showing us hands on rather than purely from diagrams and pictures in a presentation format.

I really enjoy the fact that by the end of the 4 years, we will have almost worked on every department within the site, so from a career development point of view, this allows us all to have a cross-departmental knowledge which some other people within the company won't have. The team as far as I've seen are very welcoming and encouraging, and it is easy to meet new people and learn names.

MBDA is very good at teaching its core values and culture from the get go, so from day 1 we were taught how much of a team the company is. This is definitely replicated by my managers, by [This section of the comment has been removed by a member of the RateMyApprenticeship Team because it did not meet our site terms and conditions] who heads up the apprenticeship programme.

I like the fact that m four year scheme has been mapped out in advance and sent to us so we can see it ourselves, rather than figuring it out as we go along. We have regular reviews with our manager, and are made aware of the company's expectations, so there is never a moment where we feel like it is unorganised.

Through college we can email our tutors whenever we need to, as well as the college putting on half term days for those who want assistance with assignments etc.

We have monthly meetings individually with our apprenticeship manager, as well as start/.end of placement reviews to discuss expectations, and then how we performed throughout each placement. I think this is a good amount of support, as well as the ability to email managers/tutors whenever we need.

Honestly, comparing the salary to some other apprenticeships of similar level, BAE systems especially, the starting salary is abit lower. But considering the company pay for our education and training, having a year 1 salary of £14,000 with lots of benefits, and having the opportunity to increase our salaries by up to £4000 throughout the scheme means that we finish on £30,000, with engineering qualifications and experience. With this I cant complain.

At the minute there are weekly emails coming from our apprenticeship manager offering us opportunities to go into schools, to go to parliament. We also have a thing called charity challenge which the apprentices take part in where we have to think of a way to raise money for a charity of our choice.

Yes

MBDA is a company with a secure future, a great ethos and culture and one with many future opportunities. I can see myself working here for a long time.

Start some sort of engineering project in your own time that you can record and port folio. Talk about it in your personal statement and bring your portfolio to your interview. MBDA likes to see that you enjoy engineering, and that you like to solve issues.