Business Apprentice Review

As part of the apprenticeship we change our roles every 16 weeks. However as I am an Operations Apprentice I get involved with a lot of Engineering Business Support roles. My daily tasks involve updating graphs, answering queries, aiding engineering with any business related tasks and aiding them with booking their hours to contract. I have been given a lot of responsibility in all of my roles so far as I have been trusted to fit in as one of the team and take on jobs of my own to complete. I have alos taken on a few small projects that I have had the opportunity to run myself and organise with a small project team.

I have developed a lot of my skills throughout my time including my ICT skills as all everyday work is on a computer and the wide range of work you get involved with allows you to build up all of your different ICT skills, like Excel, Presentation, Project and Word. I am also completing a Project Management course which has allowed me to learn a variety of Project skills that I had never experienced before. I also believe my apprenticeship has really helped build my confidence very quickly as I was very worried about starting especially going into the work place so soon, however within a few months I felt right at home and as each placement comes to an end I really feel like I am becoming a very confident person, capable of working in a variety of working environments.

Most of the time i thoroughly enjoy my programme, however my current placement has not been what I expected as there just hasn't been enough work. However my assessors and leaders have always done their best to try and ensure the placement give me enough work and when they weren't doing their job they moved me to my next placement early to ensure my time was being best utilised.

I feel very valued from my training assessors and the team at the training centre as I know they always have my best interest at heart and want me to do well in my apprenticeship. I also felt very valued in the last team I was in as I felt like one of the team and I knew they were appreciative of the work I was completing for them. However I don't feel as valued in the team I am currently in as I don't feel trusted to complete work on my own as I am given small menial tasks to complete and I don't feel like they treat me as part of the team.

The programme offered is brilliantly structured and organised as I believe a lot of time has been put into ensuring the programme is giving the apprentices the best opportunity. As we are always asked for feedback on various activities and courses we partake in so I know that the feedback from previous years has been enforced to ensure the programme we are on is beneficial to us.

From my training provider I receive a massive amount of support, whether it be for college work or to ensure my placement is good enough. I always feel like my training provider is there for me and doing the best job they can do to ensure my programme is suited to me and is providing me with the best opportunities.

From my current manager I don't receive a lot of support as I don't feel he has the time or the want to give me any support. However my other manager gave me a great deal of support and always encouraged me with the work I was completing. I also believe a lot of the people I am working with give me a lot of support as they are always willing to help me with queries or any work I may have.

I believe we are given a brilliant salary as I know other apprenticeship schemes do not pay as well as this one at BAE Systems. As I live at home I currently don't have any living costs, however I know people who do rent their own houses and they say the salary is good enough considering we are only apprentices. However our salary for when we complete our apprenticeship, I believe, would cover all costs needed by young people.

There are a large amount of opporunities to get involved with that are not to do with work. A lot of these opportunities are given to us by the training centre and they allow us to get involved with BAE Systems events that we may not be exposed to in our usual day to day work. There are a few voluntary activities that we can get involved with through the company, however I believe as a group of apprentices we should be getting involved with more activities as a group. As I know the engineering apprentices help out with some voluntary activities (e.g. the week out they do helping out with community projects).

Yes

I believe anyone who wanted to come and work here should as there is a massive amount of benefits to all employees and the apprenticeship scheme is amazing and has been structured to help each individual.

One piece of advice I would give someone is to be confident in themselves, if they believe they are good enough to get onto the scheme then BAE will believe this too. Also if you are confident in yourself and you can show other people your good qualities you will find it easier getting through each stage of the application.