Engineer Review

While at work I have to apply myself to several jobs at once. I work in the maintenance department and my task is to ensure that the machines are working at full efficiency, we often have breakdowns on our machines and in this scenario we must act quickly to ensure there is little downtime.

I have learned and improved on a verity of skills while at work, the key being my problem solving abilities. This is important when working on a breakdown in a machine, we must find the root problem quickly. Also my communication skills have drastically increased due to the nature of our job role.

I do enjoy my time at work however we must head to college in a 6 week block in a college that is a 100 miles + from our lives. We have these blocks and then return to site however by the time the next block rolls around we have simply forgotten about the previous learning. Also while at college there seems to be a lack of understanding and knowledge about our roles from our lectures.

The organisation of these blocks is often poor and we have complained about this in the past. We have no update on when we are back in college for our 19/20 college year making it impossible to book a holiday. Also our complaints about the college often fall on deaf ears.

I feel very much supported at work and any problem raised is sorted swiftly. Our manager is also free to talk to and training is often provided all members of staff make my time at work knowledgeable and fun. I do however lack a mentor at work or am unaware of this person.

While at college we have several lectures, half of these will offer aid and chances to self-develop. However some of these have casted a net over all of us and thus prejudging us before we have even started. I give 110% at college and achieve as much as I can but I feel like there is a barrier.

So in my year and half of college I have yet to find one… yes one skill that I can pass onto work. We have often been told that we can apply the skills we have at work to college but there is no way to do this when the lectures have no idea how our working environments are. I have been waiting to learn about electrics since I started and have raised my concerns about this, I cannot complete these tasks at work until I am safe in doing so. Making an imbalance between learning and working.

To be honest with you I go to work to learn and earn money not join a social club. If I want to do this I can go and look in my local town. It just does not appeal to me. I do believe these types of groups are available however I feel no reason to join any.

Yes

The apprenticeship helps create a career in an industry which there is very little demand and high supply of jobs, although my answers may seem critical I am happy while at work it’s just the traveling and lack of understanding from college that makes it harder. College will often say “well you should be having time at site” I do not want to do this as I am “learning” while on breakdowns or on the tools. I feel that lectures are asking too much in relation to work and this is the problem. This role pays well and once finishing my studies I will happily continue to work for Dalehead/ Tulip foods. I just feel that the college is letting down the company and if they asked for insight from ourselves in what we do we can help aid future students.

This is a demanding job and you have to be ready for it, many people will fail but the key is to stay on top of everything. The hotel is awful and the college and travel are some of the worst parts. But the enjoyment you get from fixing problems and seeing yourself develop easily outweighs the bad.