Engineering Apprentice Review

My current job title is first year Engineering Apprentice, I started off attending college every day on block release, then moved back to my factory. In the factory, my daily tasks currently involve shadowing qualified engineers and getting hands on helping them in their jobs. I interact with all levels of people within the factory, ranging from operators and technical operators, engineering apprentices and engineers and all the way up the scale. Each morning I attend all of the meetings that apply to me and am helped understand the information given, via other apprentices that have been in the same boat as me, It is really helpful to be around other people my age that understand what I am experiencing. Each day I come in and I meet up with another apprentice and a technician, they have a phone with them which operators call if there is a break down or problem with a machine. When there are no calls (rarely) we work towards the red tags that are raised by operators which highlight less urgent issues throughout the factory. We also look at current machinery and think of ways it could be improved, to make a system more streamline, or allow it to run more efficiently or be less problematic, if it causes lots of stoppages and interruptions to production.

In my apprentice role, I attended college for 6 months in which we were kitted out with all of the knowledge we may need to know for when we returned to factory. College also reinforced knowledge I already had in certain subjects and took us through all theory work that we need to know before cracking on with the real life thing. At the end of my four year apprenticeship, I will have a level 3 Diploma in Food and Drink Engineering Maintenance, which includes the skills, the knowledge and ability to apply these things, as well as other things that other courses don't consider like the hygiene aspects, and food safety aspects of work. All of the technicians I have come across in the factory have gone above and beyond their role of call, in order to help facilitate my learning to the best of their ability, hence the training has been phenomenal. Other internal training includes things such as Health and Safety training, Food Safety Training, and things that there are not courses in, but that come along as part and parcel of the job, such as patience, due diligence and problem solving.

I absolutely love the apprenticeship I am part of and feel so proud to work for Nestle, as they are such a fantastic company to work for. I really think that my apprenticeship is game changing, and is setting a trend for other companies to follow. The work that we are expected to do is fair, challenging and pushes our personal boundaries. The company itself has a huge health and safety culture, and feels like one big community. This apprenticeship has gone above and beyond my expectations for what an apprenticeship should be, I actually look forward to going into work every day, as you never know what the day has to hold. An apprenticeship really is the best of both worlds in that it is basically a student life, but you're making money, not debt.

I feel as though Nestle as a company really goes out of its way to look after its staff. There are structured meetings that are put in place to help the staff grow both personally and professionally. I feel already as though I am a part of the team and valued by people further up. Feedback, both good and constructive is openly shared and I feel that there is a real transparency with regards to your behaviours and progress within your apprenticeship.

Due to the fact that the apprenticeship I am doing is brand new, there have been a few little mix ups, having said that, it is extravagantly well put together for the fact that it is brand new and we are the guinea pigs of the apprenticeship. The induction, training and available support are absolutely outstanding,

Kirklees college have been fantastic in out training, they listened to us and amended things that we recommended. They had a great support system in place for students, however I feel that maybe they could do with more staff as the few they have seem to be stretched a fair bit.

Support is such a massively available thing within Nestle, they really do care about the progress of their apprentices significantly, they have invested both time and money to ensure that we get the best experience we can and their apprentices get the best experience they can, they have a whole board of governors set up that we can attend the meetings of so that they can get honest and fair feedback from us which is obviously of massive value to Nestle.

The salary Nestle pays is fantastic, I manage to get by comfortably with the pay that I am currently on. I feel that the pay we receive is better than a lot of other apprenticeships available. There are plenty of opportunities for attaining bonuses, and pay rises, in that as long as you are progressing as the company wishes you to, then there are no issues for money.

Being a female in the engineering sector, I get approached quite a lot about attending events to help promote engineering to other girls and women alike. I am currently looking into Nestlé's Women In Engineering event, which sounds very interesting, but other than that there are many events and opportunities, voluntary initiatives and activities to be on with. Nestle is currently engaging with local youth quite a lot to try to get them engaged in a more promising future, Nestle has a lot of charity work that it does, and I'm sure the community within my factory has a lot of things going on that I can look into.

Yes

I think that Nestle is such a great company to work for that I have suggested it to both friends and family members, because they are people I care about and Nestle is such a huge provider of fantastic opportunities, I'd like to see them feeling content within their work life and progressing all the same.

The application is quite a long process, but the outcome is so worth it, stick with it and stay motivated. Look up Nestle behaviours and think about what they mean to you. Do they fit in with your morals? Do you like the way they sound? Really think about your own interpretation of each behaviour as there is a lot of focus on those. Going down to Huddersfield was a great opportunity and it is fantastic for the people that feel as though they are missing out on the student life by taking an apprenticeship, as it gives you the best of both worlds, however you're making money; not debt. Nestle actively looks for qualities in people that other companies usually do not consider, and this is noticeable when you look at the great team of Eng Apprentices that they managed to put together.