3rd Year Apprentice Review

I am in my third year of the apprenticeship scheme. My day to day job consist of going with a faulting and maintenance team everyday attending faults , and carrying out maintenance on network rails assets. I work alongside experience technicians and ex apprentices in a team of around 15 people.

I have learnt lots of new skills and got lots of qualifications such as btec level 3 in Rail engineering operations and NVQ level 3 in performing engineering operations as well as in house training courses to gain competencies which allow me to work on different pieces of equipment.

I enjoyed the first year but I do find it hard now that I am coming towards the end of the scheme the communication between line managers and training staff could be greatly improved as this causes a lot of issue. Deadlines become tighter as work load increases and if your manager is not accommodating you can expect to find yourself working every night in your own time to complete the work no matter how organised a person you are. As an apprentice you are often required to do as your told and can be patronised at times by the older more experienced technicians.

Network Rail HQ place a great emphasis on apprentices however this has had a negative impact on the experienced technicians who feel that apprentices are favoured over themselves. This causes other technicians to have a negative attitude to apprentices at times and whilst the majority I have encountered have been great there are still a few who will put you down

I belive this to be the main issue with the scheme. In the first year everything was structured during the residential stay however upoin leaving to go to the depot closer to home they will consistently pile work on which are not relevant to the qualifications you study. Investment has decreased and the standard of teaching is some what lacking at times. The teaching staff do not have the basic tools they need to do their jobs properly. Teachers can be late in marking work which leaves you struggling towards the end of the scheme spending your own time doing work which you could of done earlier in the year had it been marked. Line managers are supportive but again can lack the understanding of exactly what their role involves when it comes to training an apprentice. Better communication with line managers would greatly improve the scheme

Whilst my trainer is part time , I know I can contact him whenever to ask a question and he will always get back to me (eventually). I have received a lot of support during the scheme and I can not fault this aspect.

I have worked many jobs before but Network Rail is one of the best employers. I am supported in so many different ways and there is always someone to call if you need any help.

I am aware that the salary has just increase but I can say the salary in the third year has left me struggling with money. I spend a lot of money on my car and transport that im not left with much after bills are payed. For all the work that I doing my spare time and the fact that I am forced to travel hundreds of miles for weeks at a time , I feel the salary is just not enough.

During the residential stay there was lots of opportunities to do things outside of work and to socialise with each other which was great. However in the second and third years I went to my depot and found there was no opportunities for me to socialise with my colleagues. I do however get invited to lots of different opportunities , meetings and events with the HR Team in my area as I do a lot of work with them outside of work to help make thing better on our route

Yes

Although the apprenticeship scheme has significant faults, Network rail as an employer is by far one of the best. There is great focus on health and wellbeing and the safeguarding of staff.

Make sure that you are aware of the cost that this apprenticeship will have on your spare time. You need to be prepared to spend time doing work and overtime at depots to cover the faults needed to do NVQ tasks. Make sure this is definitely what you want to do as three years is a lot of time to dedicate to something that you are not passionate about