Apprentice Highways lighting engineer Review

Varies from day to day but often out with either a 2 or 3 man team replacing highways furniture. I regularly also carry out lone working to repair existing street furniture and at the minute I am regularly carrying out quality control on work others have done in order to be signed off to the local authorities.

Many. Before starting I really had no clue about electricity or the industry so everything I do now at work practically has been developed from within the the apprenticeship and carrying out the day to day duties. Both thanks to being shown the skills and gaining formal qualifications from courses.

On the whole I enjoy the programme. There have been times where the grass seemed greener on the other side when I am frustrated with how things are but thanks to the work put in by those organising the scheme I am glad to have stayed on and am looking forward to completing my apprenticeship.

I can now say it is well structured thanks to the effort put in by many people to get my apprenticeship on track to complete within four years. We have now had the time frame set out to us and roughly what we will be doing and when we will be doing it.

Thanks to the relationships I have built within the people in organisation i would say I have got extremely good support from E.ON. I can’t imagine a situation where I would get what I needed in order to achieve something. All you have to do is ask and even if it’s a no there’s a good reason.

Our training provider has recently come on board to the company and has completely changed things around. If anything is needed it is only a phone call away and everybody feels that we are a priority to the training provider whether it be advise or whether it be formal talks to do with the scheme.

To put it simply without the knowledge gained from the qualification we would probably be able to do our jobs by following instruction but without understanding our jobs. We gain knowledge that allows us to work safely and in the knowledge that we are right in what we are doing.

Yes. As long as you put yourself forward for anything there’s many opportunities for networking, extra courses and to meet others within the energy sector whether they be craftspeople or office based. A lot of effort is put into raising awareness for apprenticeships and I’m glad to say I’ve had many opportunities to help.

Yes

Within a large business and sector like E.ON there are so many opportunities to show what you can do whether it be related to your role or extra curricular and because of this there are plenty of different career paths for everyone. It isn’t a company of ‘robots’ just plodding on. There are plenty of great benifits financially too with the yearly choice of options and it gives a competitive pensions pot.

You don’t have to know the sector to in order to join. Be realistic about what you can and can’t do and don’t over sell yourself. There are people within the organisation who have been in the industry for years and know their roles well so acting like you know everything won’t get you far. Don’t however be afraid to showcase your personality. They can teach you the skills but they need to see a good potential personality who wants to learn.