Higehr Technical Engineering Apprentice Review

At the moment I am currently going through rotations in different departments throughout the company. Day to day I am helping out on different small jobs, this provides a lot of variety in my work which keeps in interesting.

I have developed on several key skills that are an integral part of working within a large company such as confidence, initiative and communication.

The apprenticeship program offers a lot of interesting opportunities and the variety in work definitely makes the experience better. Everyone is very friendly and welcoming and always happy to offer up their time to help us.

Siemens has done lots to try and provide a program that is beneficial to us and the company and the care that they have taken to ensure we are integrated into the company and to ensure we are not left doing undesirable jobs definitely makes me feel valued.

Despite initial problems with our learning provider-Bournemouth & Poole College, our apprenticeship program has since improved since the new year and we are now undergoing rotations throughout the company. We are the first higher apprentices this company has had in some years which has led to some uncertainty, there is no comprehensive plan that could be viewed by us to see what will be happening month by month and where we will be going and what we will be doing.

The support we receive for our HNC has been very good, we are able to email any of our lecturers to ask questions or stay behind to do additional work. The support for the PEO units that we do with the college has been extremely disappointing. The lecturer rarely shows up and has little to offer when he does, most of the work we have had to do for these units have been done via self learning. We are supposed to have a 'point of contact' however I have no idea who this is and there has been no attempt by the college to assign us one. I would rate my experience for the HNC an 8 and for the PEO units a 2.

Siemens has done a lot to help support our college work, it is not uncommon to be given days to focus on out college work which is much appreciated. They have also provided laptops to help us function within the company and to help us with our college studies.

The salary we receive I feel is generous and at no point have I felt underpaid.

Siemens as a company has several out of work activities and clubs that take place regularly however as far as I am aware there isn't any opportunities outside of work specific to apprentices.

Yes

It is a good company to work for with a very friendly work environment that values all employees highly. It also offers lot of routes for progression.

The interview process is aimed to assess how well suited you are as an individual to be working for a large company and will evaluate qualities such as teamwork, communication and attitude. It is not a knowledge test and shouldn't be treated as such. Obviously a basic requirement is to know what the company does, but there is no need to know every product inside out.