Rail Design Engineer Review

Usual Job is Signalling Design Engineer on the Railway, yet I complete placements within Test, Construction & Engineering, as well as working with test on weekends. I am actively working on live projects both in the office & on track, working on tasks such as designing circuits, I attend college one day a week.

I have learned a lot during my apprenticeship in many different disciplines, getting a foot into the railway and learning vital skills that will help me enhance my career, much more valuable that going to university. The training & mentor ship provided by my workplace is second-to-none, yet the training I receive from Trafford college is extremely poor & irrelevant to my job/future job role(s).

I enjoy the program a lot, 4 days a week, yet find the college day to be irrelevant, not learning the correct skills. I enjoy all sides of my job role from being on track to designing in the office, I feel it helps if you’re interested in your job & this program has enabled that interest. I have also been missed overtime payments & was sent in a circle around the HR department which is not acceptable for such a large company, yet the actual work side is fantastic.

The program within the workplace is extremely well structured, especially as the office/region I work out of is only young, at 5 years old, they don’t confine you to one job, I have been able to see many different sides of the railway, making me understand each discipline.

I receive a lot of support from my employer, from booking courses for me, funding college materials & easily reimbursing expenses, I have been assigned mentors who are extremely helpful & willing to teach, they also have many guides on how to achieve where I want to be & support my career path,

I receive minimal support from Trafford college, I am under the impression, as well as many other students, they simply want to get paid for the course & do not care about your circumstances, the teaching standard is extremely poor & there seems to be no structure to the college, the facilities are also massively outdated & they do not care that the topics are not relevant to our job roles, even though the courses can be adapted.

My qualification minimally helps me at my job, with only 2 out of 6 topics being relevant, I feel it hinders my progress at work as the assignment planning is poor, leaving us with little time to do work, partially due to poor attendance from staff, most of the time not receiving substitute tutors.

Yes

Yes

Great company to work for, [This section of the comment has been removed by a member of the RateMyApprenticeship Team because it did not meet our site terms and conditions]

have an idea of the industry.