Street Lighting Apprentice Review

I am a highway lighting apprentice. My day to day tasks can vary from performing routine maintenance, repairing street lighting, installing new street lighting columns and doing jointing of electrical cables to service columns. I either work in a team of 2 or 3 as an apprentice depending on the job I am doing. I dont have much interaction with the public other than answering questions about the work we are completing. As an apprentice I observe and try and complete the tasks I am trained in like wiring the bases of columns, operating MEWPs to repair street lights and other small jobs required on site to help the jointers and electricians.

I have learnt a great deal about electrical equipment and the basic principles of electricity. I have acquired practical skills like using MEWPs, setting traffic management, safe isolation of circuits. I have learnt how to be a jointers mate and am waiting to be passed off allowing me to work more closely with the jointers on site to help service street lighting through completing joints. I have not been sent to college yet after 2 years on the apprenticeship so while practical skills have been developed I have learnt no theory formally, only with a few electricians on site . We were told we would go to college the first months into the apprenticeship and it has been pushed back ever since. With this in mind I have attended college off my own back with my own funding to allow me to be more highly trained than anything my apprenticeship could offer and to put my mind at ease that I dont need to worry about being trained on my apprenticeship.

I enjoy certain aspects of my work but others I enjoy less as I find them mundane and I feel I am wasting my potential on them, for example cleaning bollards in the road and changing lamps in street lighting. I feel abit more for filled when I am doing repairs and new installations as I feel more valued and feel like I am part of a team and more useful. I like the people I work with but find very few are able to work with apprentices any further than getting them to do the small jobs they dont like, for example, cleaning up after a job. Only a small handful try to expand your knowledge and educate on the job and engage with the apprentices properly which makes most days boring and un-engaging, even further than just going mundane work. I feel like the culture of the company is to have big ideas in the higher management of the company that never get followed through on while lower management in the depot is very restrictive and by the books, which makes moral low and the willingness to work very low also. I dont feel valued and I dont feel like my ideas are vales or even listened to. I think the management doesn't care and stick to the rule book to the letter until it doesn't suit them, leading to more dis contempt in myself and other workers. The job isnt really what I expected and I am finding it less and less enjoyable the longer the apprenticeship goes on, this is party due to the nature of the work being unfulfilling and engaging, the managements attitude which makes me very upset and feel underappreciated as well as the terrible organisation for training.

I dont feel very valued by eon for the reasons I have said in other sections. I feel less and less valued by the week and I feel like another issues comes along every other week to make me feel more and more un-valued

Very poorly organised, I think the practical; training like MEWP training were organised well at the beginning of the apprenticeship but there has been no college and the practical training has come to a stand still now too as far as I can tell as I havnt been on a course for about 4 months

I dont have any contact with a training provider, we just go to any training we are told to go on. I have no clue on the progress of our college training as there is never a clear answer if questions are asked by myself or other apprentices.

This is pretty much the same answer as 6a as they are the same thing. I am not asked about the progress of college by the managers at the depot and so it just seems like I go to work the same as any other people working in the same job as me, just im labeled an apprentice and can only do the mundane easy jobs since i have no formal training. I have no mentor and any guidance is pretty lacking, or I dont know where to find it

I live with my parents so living costs are low apart from paying board and saving for the future. If i was to live on my own I couldn't support myself. I dont drive far to work so I am able to pay for travel easily from my wage. I can limit daily costs so that is manageable. I usualy travel to see my girlfriend a few times a month as she is at universisty so I set aside money each month to do that. My main cost is funding my own college education including course costs, which I am lucky enough to have parents/ grandparents helping with, along with equipment and travel once a week of an extra 65 miles. After savings and expenditure I usually have enough money to treat myself to something like a new pair of trainers or a game once a month along with seeing my girlfirend. Of course I would like more money but I manage on the wage I have and it has increased since the second year of the apprenticeship. I think of the level of danger in the job, a little more money could be justified

We recently had a apprentice day for all Eon apprentices but I found this to be a back patting exercise without any real substance. I was hoping to get information on college but the event was taken up by talking about how great the apprenticeships in Eon were, which I couldn't really relate to so I just watched the clock until I could leave. Unsurprisingly the event was poorly organised. There is no evening events or clubs set up by the company. My evenings consist of going to college once a week and sitting around on my computer for the rest of the week since all the people I knew from school have left for university. Then I go to work and repeat.

No

Poor organisation, lack of motivation and morale, feeling undervalued and having a general bad attitude to the working environment and relationship between bosses and workers

Do your research into what you'll be doing exactly and make sure the environment that the job is based on is the kind of thing you want. If you know exactly what the job involves after research and you decide the job is what you want then let nothing stop you pursuing the opportunity but I would advise to do something else if you are unsure on what the job offers. Its not the job you want to jump into just to try because of the commitment you are expected to make and the environment you are setting into not being very pleasant