Apprentice Design Engineer Review

My role (in first year) as an apprentice design engineer at Costain is to gain experience within my department (C&I) and to attend college to complete my HNC and PEO qualifications. For our first year the other apprentices and I attend college full time and visit the office outside of term time.

During the first six months of my apprenticeship I have developed skills such as; time keeping, working to deadlines, managing my time effectively. Academic skills in subjects such as engineering science, engineering design and CAD have been developed. With support of the staff at Costain I have developed my knowledge in regards to C&I.

Going to college everyday is really enjoyable, I enjoy learning/studying with the other apprentices. I also really like the fact that there is apprentices from different companies on my course, this could help me in the future having known employees of multiple engineering companies. however travelling to and from Manchester can be very draining.

in terms of structure the programme is great, our training provider (siemens) invited us to their office at the start of the apprenticeship to explain what was going to happen and when, they gave me a copy of the structure and made sure I understood it. the organisation of the programme is also good.

My employer (Costain) has been very supportive my line manager and other colleagues are always checking up on us, asking if there is anything we need help with, everyone in the office is friendly and supportive, always willing to help us with work when we are stuck. all the support we would need is there if we ever need it.

Siemens is my training provider and in terms of support I have no complaints! they've been great in handling any issues the other apprentices have had and consistently check up on the other apprentices and I. They have arranged multiple dates in which we can go to the siemens offices to attend lectures relating to our course

I'm only six months into my course at Trafford college so it is hard to say how well my qualification will help me in fulfilling my role at Costain, however up to now there has been some overlap in terms of CAD and some Electrical and Electronic Principles that has helped.

Because of my limited time in the office I'm currently unaware of any extra-curricular social activities, sports teams or professional networking events, however I have had emails about charity events that other staff members are taking part in such as a mount Snowdon hike. I've also been to an apprentice retreat that had all the apprentices in Costain.

Yes

Because Costain is a large engineering company with a great reputation within the industry, starting your career here is bound to open doors in the future whether that be with Costain or another company. As well as this my experience with everyone who works here has been good, a good company ethos dedicated to improving peoples lives through innovative engineering solutions.

Make sure you research the company and the department you are applying for, this will help you determine whether or not it is the company you would like to work for/ represent. If you get an interview, prepare for it, don't just wing it, bring a portfolio no matter how small, this could contain college work or things such as CAD models anything engineering related is great.