Combat Systems Higher Apprentice Review

We work in 6 month placements, so depending on who you're put with and on what project your day can look very different. This is because the progress of the project could mean you are rectifying issues before the almost completed ship goes to sea trials, or on a different project you could be working on the design, looking at where is the best place for a server rack in a certain room. This means variety but it makes it hard to describe what you do on a daily basis. Right now, I'm working with requirements or what the Navy have said must be included on the ship. I have to make sure the evidence our suppliers give us to prove these requirements to us make sense. As for qualifications; first year is all college, second and third are day-release.

We go to college and do a HNC, HND and SVQ at SCQF level 8, as well professional qualifications in Windows and Cisco, so I have learned a lot through that. Other than that the knowledge that came from the actual work is our processes, policies and a good knowledge of how each of the systems I am working on operates, what it does and how it does it.

Overall I would say this is a good programme and I enjoy it up to a point but it can be frustrating working here as organisation and structure are often absent. I think the logic behind this is ultimately to try and create a self-sufficient employee, but I feel it could be done better as apprentices can feel slightly abandoned in the current system.

Self-sufficiency is generally expected of everyone and you should just know what to do or find out what to do. Personally, I don't think this approach is the most effective but it does seem to have a reasonable level of success. I would have preferred more support and guidance earlier on but ultimately I have dealt fine without it.

I would say just enough, it's not over and above but it is certainly good enough and I'm sure most employees would say something similar. In terms of monetary support, the wage is very good, far above any other apprenticeship I have seen. In terms of educational support, it is good from the college we work with.

The support from the college is reasonably good and if you ever have a problem it will always be heard and usually sorted quite quickly so no complaints there. They have been quite good at teaching us and have always tried to find ways to support us when we mention we need it.

In all honesty the qualifications I gained in college have very little to do with what I have been doing in the workplace, this has been mentioned to management and their strategy that led to this does make sense but it appears it doesn't really fit with what work actually happens in the office I work in.

There are a few of these, I would say there is opportunities if you are looking for them but it is not overly common. We do have a Christmas night out but this is entirely organised and funded by the people in our office. We have the apprentice council which has a newsletter and tries to organise social things etc.

Yes

I think it's a good company to work for. The conditions, the work and the people are all reasonably good, the pay is good and it appears to me as an apprentice that there are plenty of promotional opportunities, in fact you quite regularly hear of past apprentices climbing to positions in the upper management that I'm sure they could have never achieved outside of BAE, so they do seem to have a real interest in you climbing the career ladder.

In my experience these things will help when applying to combat systems/ higher level apprenticeships: Be knowledgeable about our business, having a willingness to learn, show your independence and self-sufficiency, having work experience will help, must have a strong interest in engineering, IT and technology and doing well in your Highers/A-levels will help