Wind Turbine Apprentice Review

I'm currently a year one apprentice this involves me having to attend college five days a week to achieve the qualifications that i'm required to get by my employer. During college we learn a variety of things from Maths to Hydraulic & Pneumatic power systems which gives us a basic understanding before we head onto site during the six week holidays.

During my time so far i've learnt many new skills, before getting this apprenticeship I had little knowledge of this area of engineering. Therefore during my time at college i've learn't skills such a how identify components on circuit diagrams, how to build valve stacks, what different components do on electrical circuits. I've also recently completed my GWO Sea Survival training which has taught me how to safely transition onto a wind turbine and also how to survive in the sea, in a emergency situation.

One of the best things about my apprenticeship is the team work aspect, we all started at the same time and it allows us to go through the same journey and learn together. The company is I work for is excellent, I feel I have support at all times if I felt like I needed it and they also supply tools such as laptops and iPads to aid our education. The programme has definitely met my expectations, I knew that'd i'd be a great programme to do however it's definitely exceed my expectations also.

The programme is very well organised/structured, at the beginning we had an induction in Newcastle which gave us a full detailed outline of the apprenticeship, the managers introduced themselves, details of the college we're attending and what was expected of us during the course. During our time at college we have a great support network, with our line manager coming in for regular one to one meetings with us, to allow us to express any concerns that we may have and check up on our progress. This allows us to create targets to improve ourselves continuously.

We constantly have support around us, our managers are very friendly and approachable. We're encourage to contact them at any time if we have any concerns or enquiries regardless to what it is. My company also makes good use of Yammer, this allows us to post any questions we have such as support with IT, queries about the course etc without having to send emails and with Yammer we can get a quick response.

During college all of our tutors are very friendly and professional, if we have any concerns they're always there to help. This is even the case when out of class, we can go to see them during our free time and they're more than happy to help to provide guidance.

The qualification through the training provider is directly relevant to the role we're going to be doing when we go to site. For example learning about hydraulic and pneumatics, maintenance procedures and the reason why we follow certain maintenance plans. This gives us a background as to why things are done.

Currently as i'm half way through my first year into the apprenticeship we haven't had opportunity for extra curricular activities. However the company did organise a Christmas party for all of the apprentices which was great fun, allowing us to meet people who we may be working with later on in our careers.

Yes

I'd recommend this apprentice to anybody is wanting to work in the renewables sector, it's a fairly new industry and its forever growing making new opportunities all the time. This course has met all and exceed all expectations, it is incredibly fun and interesting. You'll find that this course will allow you to learn many new skills from manual skills to team work.

If you're successful in making it to the interview stages, just make sure you do preparation such as why you want this job, what you can bring to the company, research into the company such as new things that have happened with them etc. Just ensure you act yourself and try to remain confident and calm because the requirement team are friendly and the interview process is quite a fun day.