Work Experience Student Review

For my work experience I would have been required to be at the paint shop (department where I was working) at 7am. I had a mentor who would be an employee in the paint shop, and every day I would be shown and walked through different parts of the department that related to my interests. It was great because as soon as my mentor realised that I had an interest in chemistry, I was able to spend one of the days with the lab guys and see how they worked and the impact they had on the company.

Overall I believe that I have gained a great understanding of how the company operates and therefore I knew what I was applying for when I did apply for an apprenticeship here. Because of the early 7am starts, time management was a skill that I had definitely developed. My technical skills and knowledge were constantly tested as I would be asked whether I would know how certain machinery worked and whether I knew of any ways to improve the efficiency.

I really did enjoy the BMW work experience programme. I found it fascinating. Being able to see, first hand how all of the Mini’s are manufactured is fantastic. I got to visit all three of their state of the art department and witness the advanced technologies in practice. I’d say that this programme is especially special as people are not usually see the things I have seen while on this programme.

I believe that me attending the work experience had made me a far stronger candidate for when I was applying for the apprenticeship role. I do believe that it was part of the reason as to why they did offer me tho job in the end as I would already have inside knowledge of how the company works and the company values etc. Considering I have recieved the offer for the apprenticeship, I do believe the work experience placement has made me a more valued candidate by the BMW group.

The programme was partially structured as we had an overall plan on what we were going to do each day. While I was in the paint shop department, I don’t believe that the days were planned in advance, however, I believe that this worked well as the as the days were suited to what I wanted to see and what interested me the most. There were days when we had it in our schedule to have a plant tour and also visit the apprenticeship training centre.

As I was only on work experience I will answer this question with regards to the mentor I was with during my week at the Mini Plant Oxford. I believe that I received all the support I needed from my mentor as they were able to tailor the programme to suit the needs/ interests that I had which I found extremely useful and this meant that the week was far more beneficial for me in the end.

I will answer this question with regards to the work experience organiser as I was only there for a weeks work experience. They were extremely helpful, not only before the work experience but also before and after. They helped during the work experience by offering to provide any emergency support we would have reqired and after by answering any questions I had and enabling me to apply for another week of work experience because I had so much fun in the first.

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Yes

I believe that with BMW there is a vast number of opportunities. The plant has a huge number of roles that will definitely be able to work for most engineers and even scientists. The employees that I had encountered and the mentors that we were with for the week truly did care and did try to help us get the most out of our week of work experience.

I would definitely recommend attending at least one week of work experience with the company. This gave me a huge insite into whether I really wanted to work in the environment, which I did. Another bit of advice I would give is, BMW is really into people with hands on and technical skills, so if you guys can brush those up I’m sure it would give you a major advantage in the recruitment processes