Trainee Power Systems Engineer Review

Each week is different. some are spent at Aston University, where we are studying for a foundation degree in power system management. Some are spent at National Grid's bespoke training centre in Eakring (Newark, Nottinghamshire). The rest are spent on site in Wokingham, either doing coursework for university or getting hands on experience in teams.

Coming in with a degree in physics and already having years of full time work experience, means a lot of the course so far has been developing the skills I had learnt before starting. It has been a fantastic chance to convert my mostly theoretical knowledge into practical engineering knowledge, and has been a great chance to network within National Grid.

I love my job. For me the university course is fairly easy, but interesting. The National Grid training is all relevant to my role, and allows me to develop skills that I will need in my future career. The on job role at the office in Wokingham, is exciting and forfilling.

After a long induction into National Grid, that taught us the companies values, mission and what we do the course structure seemed a little out of order. For example we had our inductions and first university block, then had a week of team building, by which point we had already spent 12 weeks together and had been set a large amount of course work. We also had report wring training after the first semester at uni, where we had to write reports.

We have both a line manager on job in Wokingham and a New Talent Specialist in Eakring, who we can contact if we need any support, either work related or not. We are given plenty of support on job by the teams we are in as many started either as graduates or apprentices.

We have not been assigned individual academic tutors, but most lecturers are good at replying to emails when we are not on campus or making time to meet when we are. Aston University's Learning Development Centre are also very helpful if you are struggling with either maths or english

The training we are provided by National Grid gives us an appreciation of other departments within the company as well as allowing the development of skills useful to any career. The training we get at Aston gives us a deep understanding of the electricity industry as a whole. Combined with our on job experience this is very effective.

There is a system called NewNet that allows all new staff to National Grid to network and get to see other business areas and there is a social event thing. However due to spending lots of time away from our base location on training we are unable to attend many of these events.

Yes

They are a great company to work for. They have a set of values that are easy to understand and they stick to them. You are supported through lots of training and the possibilities at the end of the apprenticeship are plenty and varied. Many of the high level staff having start form the bottom and worked their way up.

National Grid's key values are to always do the right thing and to find a better way. This means they hire people who are unafraid to be themselves, that stick up for what they believe in and are intelligent and imaginative. Who they will train and try to keep within their business.