Electrical & Instrumentation Apprentice Technician Review

My job title is E & I apprentice technician. Due to the vast amount of technical skills that need to be learned the majority of my daily tasks so far have been to learn in the classroom. Occasionally I am on site and when I am it is mainly to shadow my mentor and to assist with simple tasks whilst still at the beginning of my apprenticeship. Daily interactions are with other apprenticeships who are learning the same as me and externally I normally communicate via email with my mentor or line manager. My responsibilites at the moment are to ensure I learn to the best of my abilities and to try and take on as much information as possible. I have a BTEC level 3 in which I have to do a project which I will be completing over the next 6 months. The project consists of me making an improvement to something on a National Grid site. Every day, I sit in a classroom and try to learn the same things.

I have learned many new skills in Electrical and Instrumentation and I have gained some qualifications such as getting my PAT testing certificate. All of National Grids training courses are internal so I dont leave the training site. National Grid are very keen on developing personal and professional skills and at the beginning of the apprenticeship they put on many development programmes to make us all aware of National Grid beliefs.

The team I work with are all good people but I do feel that too much is crammed in to a small period of time and it means that I don't learn as much as I want to which worries me in the long run as I think I might not qualify at the end. National Grid exceeded my expectations at the beginning of the apprenticeship but as it has continued my expectations have been lowered as I have encountered a few problems. I am enjoying sections of my apprenticeship but as I mentioned earlier, it would be better if it was more spread out.

Due to recent problems with my mileage and working hours (in which I do more hours than anyone else and get less money for it) I feel very unappreciated. Also, after reviews from managers I feel that they have not recognised the huge effort I have put in. But, I am involved with good tasks when I am on site which I have found very helpful, but these need to be more frequent. I don't feel valued as an employee, and certain members of staff at the training centre continue to talk to the apprentices like they aren't valued and can be very rude.

I think the programme needs to be spread out over a longer period of time as the majority of Apprentices are strugggling to understand all of the work we have to learn because it is too much too quick.

National Grid as a whole do try very hard to support us through the apprenticeship and this is very clear. During all review meetings the support phone numbers are mentioned and they encourage us to learn them. They give a very positive attitude to supporting me.

We do normally get assistance when needed although this does tend to take longer than it should do from people I am meant to follow.

As an apprenticeship, the wages are good. Th fact I am stuck at the training centre the majority of the time also means that it is difficult to spend my money but when I am on site I am losing money due to the large distance on which I travel without receiving mileage money.

There are many opportunities for events outside of work, and National grid encourage me to take part in these.

Yes

Good wage, but difficult.

Make sure you know a lot about your chosen subject as you won't be given much time to learn it. There is a lot of opportunities to learn fantastic skills and these can be used in many ways and when you do qualify the work is always varied.