Apprentice Engineer Review

I currently work in a highways design and maintenance team working on the larger resurfacing and road reconstruction schemes. Part of my job involves undertaking visual surveys and coming up with a design. As well as this I also liaise with the network management team and the police.

Over the last year I have learnt a great deal about my day to day work and how much detail goes into a project. I have also developed my CAD skills. I also have become better at general work related tasks like writing emails, liaising with other teams and using programs like Excel and Word.

Overall, I really enjoy the work I do and find it interesting. The college course its self does have interesting aspects, but it generally does not relate to what I do.

Although I currently work for Arup, the project I work on is part of a joint venture with another company. Because of this I do not directly work with anyone from Arup. Although I have an official Arup line manager my actual line manager is from a different company. The only real feedback I get from Arup is via my appraisal and pay review.

When I first joined Arup there was someone who looked after the apprenticeship program, since then they have left the company and it looks like they haven’t been replaced. Although there was a lack of structure, it didn’t really matter at that point. However, I am now coming to end of my apprenticeship and no one can tell me what my next steps are. After hours spent on the phone, emailing and in meetings no one can give me an answer. With application deadlines coming up next month they are leaving it to the last minute. The apprentices from the company I work with received their options over 3 months ago… To their credit everyone has been very friendly and helpful, but they simply don’t know because there is no structure in place. Although it may all get sorted before September it still is poorly organised and makes it difficult for me to plan what I want to do

My current college is very understaffed as the head of course left before the second year and left the teacher who has less than a year’s experience in charge. I’ll let you imagine how that went. Although there are many things I could pick up on, from being taught the wrong unit to having teachers who told us there was no textbook (there was) and let’s not forget having maths lessons after the final maths exam. Even with all this, it is nothing in comparison to other colleges. Although the teachers themselves try their best and are willing to help, there just aren’t enough of them. Although the college isn’t perfect I’d recommend it over most others where the teachers don't even turn up

As I previously mentioned I work in a team from another company and they are all extremely supportive. The only support I get from Arup is HR related as I go to my line manager 90% of the time. Apart from the badly structured advanced apprenticeship programme, those who I talk to and ask questions from are all very supportive.

As I work close to London I’m on a higher salary to compensate for this. Overall, I find that the salary and benefits more than cover my needs. I would find it difficult however to live on my own as the area is very expensive

I don’t work in an Arup office, but I do see plenty of invites going around for company events open to all staff

Yes

Overall, Arup provide a competitive salary as well as many extra benefits. There are many different types of projects available to work on and everyone’s continuing professional development is encouraged and supported. You'll find that overall everyone at Arup will do their best to help you when you get stuck and teach you what they know.

In my interview, I found that they weren’t really interested in my exam results or my initial pre-interview college test results (I failed the maths one which you would think is rather important in engineering). They were more interested in what I’d done like volunteering in an engineering office to build community halls and playing in an orchestra. I think that they like to see something a bit different. So try and get some work experience in engineering and do something a bit different that might get their attention.