Engineer trainee Review

Substations engineer trainee Maintenance of high voltage equipment for national grid, this involves task such as major maintenances of transformer, tap changers,isolators, circuit breakers including air blast, oil circuit Breakers and SF6. Day to day I interact with other members in my apprenticeship group for various activities such as University courses and training courses at Eakring training centre.

I have learnt many new skills from the various courses that I have been put on such as basic hand skills where basic skills such as hand skils where I learnt to file things down and some pipe work. Basic electrical skills were also learnt on a separate course, this included wiring plugs, wiring lights and wiring switches from a distribution board. There is also the ongoing foundation degree at aston university.

I enjoy the actual work that is done as I enjoy engineering and activities such as taking items of plant apart, seeing the internal workings and fixing anything that is broken. The team dynamic is good with a great array of people all from different backgrounds. This job has met all of my expectations and I am very happy with it.

I feel valued by national grid at the moment however I am aware that in the future I will be more valued as I progress through the company and become a senior authorized person and begin to write safety documents. However at the moment I do not feel that I am overly valued by national grid however I feel that my time will come.

Generally the course is structured well with lots of courses available to me, one criticism would be that there is a lack of time on site, this means that little time is spent at home and seeing family is hard. Last minute courses are sometimes an issue as this results in changes to planned work on site and planned personal activities.

Eakring academy do provide lots of support, for example trainers are very knowledgable and generally happy to help with whatever you need. If a course is failed then there are various procedures that are in place to support our learning, one of there is a PIP, this stands for a Performance improvement plan.

My employer provides lots of support, this is done mainly by my industrial mentor who provides me with information on the various national grid systems, upcoming work and support with my foundation degree. Overall he is a good asset to me and my training. there are various support lines and websites provided by national grid for things such as mental health.

My salary is very generous, I was an 18 year old when I first joined the company and this was my first proper job after sixth form. To leave sixth form and go straight onto a 25K plus salary including London weighting was very appealing to me a young adult. Since I am still living at home and paying a lower rent this salary allows me to save for a house and rent at the same time.

Although there are not a terrible amount of opportunity outside of work, the opportunities do exist, for example Christmas doos, these are annual and allows the whole team to get together in an environment that is not work related and let your hair down. Also some nights out are organized by team members for example greyhound racing.

Yes

This is a good company to work for, the training provided is excellent and the job is secure. I see myself having a good future in national grid as there are opportunities to progress and the training offered is a great opportunity. for example a foundation degree could be topped up to a full degree, you could gain senior authorized person and commissioning engineer qualification.

Although the application process is long and nerve-wracking it is all worth it in the end. It is best just to be yourself in interviews, there is no point in pretending. On the assessment days it is key to speak up in group activities to make sure that your voice is heard and that you are seen by the assessing managers. It is important to remember that working for national grid is a grid opportunity.