Apprentice Engineering Technician Review

I am a second year Engineering Technician Apprentice. As a second year I spend 3 days a week on a placement in a department on site, and 2 days at Abingdon & Witney College studying for my foundation degree. The department placements last 3 months and are planned at the start of the year (they are often changed however). In each placement I am given a project to either work on individually or to help others with. The work load on each placement can vary dramatically. The foundation degree is in Mechanical Engineering, and is an Oxford Brookes run course despite being on an external campus. In the fourth year of the apprenticeship I will complete a “top up” course at Brookes to get a BSE in Mechanical Engineering.

In the first year of my apprenticeship I learnt new skills such as electrical circuits, electronics, MMA welding, PLC programing, further maths, and hydraulics. However I found there was a lot overlap with skills and qualifications I had completed at college before starting the apprenticeship. For example I had to redo a Level 3 BTEC qualification despite already having one, which wasn’t necessary to start my foundation degree. Also most of the physical skills I learnt in the first year, while useful to have an understanding of, will not be used in my placements or final role with the company. So far in my second year I have learnt a lot more about the company itself including the plant’s structure, its relationships with other BMW plants, and its main processes and programs. I feel this information has been twice as useful as anything I learnt in my first year. I would suggest that first year apprentices are taught the basics of the plant in the first year for when they start their placements.

So far I have found my second year to be far more enjoyable than my first, which didn’t feel any different to college/sixth form. I now feel like I am training for a job role, and learning about the Oxford plant. I am given far more responsibilities over my time and my learning. However my enjoyment of the program really depends on the quality of the placement I am in. I have found that some placements offer far more engaging projects than others, and some have offered no project at all. These concerns have already been raised with the training school (the onsite department responsible for all apprentices), however I have yet to see any changes being made.

From my experience of the apprenticeship I do feel valued by the company, however it is clear that apprentices are not at the top of anyone’s priorities. I can easily contact the training school, and there are one to one reviews scheduled every 3 months, giving me the opportunity to voice any issues I have, whether they are personal or work related. Although recently I feel less valued by my training managers.

The best way I could describe my apprenticeships structure is flexible. During my apprenticeship the program has gone through some large changes. This combined with the fact that my year group are “trail blazing” with a new apprenticeship structure, has meant that apart from the first year the structure keeps changing slightly. Until recently the structure of my fourth year was unconfirmed. While it looks like a final structure is slowly coming together, I have learnt not to regard anything as definite.

I would regard my current training provider as Abingdon & Whitney College as they provide the tutoring for the Oxford Brookes run course. Over the last year I have received more than enough support from my tutors. I always expected a university course to be largely self-learning based, but I did not expect this level of support. My only criticism would be that as it is not run on a Brooke’s campus we miss out on a lot of the benefits of being a Brookes student, such as a larger library, sports facilities, and social groups.

I feel like the level of support from my training mangers is currently not sufficient for me to meet the expectations they have. This is largely due to a lack of support for our NVQ modules which we are required to complete while on placement. Apart from an initial meeting with our assessor and being emailed unit specifications, we have received no guidance, as they are focused on other year groups. I also feel this way because of how our placements are handled, from planning them to not arranging introduction or exit meetings.

As a young adult living away from home I find the salary sufficient to cover the cost of living, as well having a company car, and some spending money left over. From when you start you can expect a pay rise every six months providing you stay on top of your work, and meet all the deadlines. The starting salary is low compared to other apprenticeships in oxford, however the salary becomes much more competitive. Other benefits include a pension scheme, company car scheme, and employee discounts with various retailers. My only criticisms of the salary is that the pay increments are not consistent and that it is not possible to live off of the starting salary if you have to move to oxford.

There are currently very limited social opportunities outside of work for apprentices. There are company events that apprentices can take part in, however these consist of once a year events such as Mountain Challenge, a competitive mountaineering event over a weekend. A new gym is being constructed on site, but it will be subscription based and will be limited on numbers.

Yes

In my opinion apprenticeships are the best way to not only get industry experience, but also higher qualifications. BMW Group offers a great apprenticeship for anyone interested in getting into engineering. I have learnt and developed new skills.

I would recommend showing you get some engineering interest through a hobby or volunteering at motorsport team. When recruiting they are looking for enthusiastic people with good learning behaviour, not knowledge. They say knowledge can be taught but behaviour cannot.