Mechanical Maintenance Fitter Review

Mechanical Maintenance Apprentice, so have to diagnose and repair breakdowns of plant and machinery on site as well as carry out preventative maintenance tasks that are due.

Continually developing my fitting skills everyday on a variety of jobs. Put on various courses from Working at Heights, Confined Space training, Mobile operated work platform training, lifting and slinging and many more. I also have completed a BTEC in mechanical maintenance engineering and currently part way through my HND in the same subject.

It is by far the best job I have ever had with what I get to do day to day, as well as the many enrichment programs included within the apprenticeship, such as Outward Bound (an outdoors activity week, for team building and developing leadership skills), the German exchange programme as well as multiple charity opportunities.

I feel part of the team in work and feel valued in my role, with great communication from work mates and managers.

The apprenticeship as a whole is really well organised all the way through from the first year in the training centre to being actually out on the job. There are many opportunities to voice your opinions as well if you see any potential for improvement.

My work assessor is great, he sets me tasks to do to help along with completing my NVQ work and have regular meetings to make sure I am on track and to address any issues I may have.

There a great network of support within BAE with many channels and people that can be reached if any support is required.

The salary is exceptional for an apprenticeship, with the starting pay alone earning me more than enough money to afford all my living costs. The salary is great how it increases with completion of stages of your apprenticeship completed.

There are many things you can do outside of work, such as STEM activities which involve visiting schools giving talks about science and engineering. There are also programmes such as World Skills, Innovation Challenge and the German Exchange which are all great opportunities to develop new skills.

Yes

I have recommended BAE Systems to many friends, I think the pay is great and the job itself is challenging and enjoyable, in which I could not ask for more.

When I applied, there was a number of stages to the process: An application form with numerous questions, it is important to answer these questions well, showing an enthusiasm towards the apprentice role you are applying for. As you will be selected from these answers whether you will go through to the next stages. Online tests, these included a maths, engineering principals and a English test where you had to find the required information within a body of text. These were all timed multiple choice tests. The next stage was an invite to a interview day where you are requested to bring in a project you had worked on and to talk about this to some interviewers. It is important to do your research on BAE Systems as well as questions about BAE's history, locations and what they manufacture probably will be brought up. On the interview day also we had to perform a dexterity test to build a model using the drawings provided (it is important to complete the model exactly as shown on the drawing provided) and retake one of the online tests in a supervised room to ensure that you had taken the tests yourself.