Engineering Apprentice Review

My day to day work involves working with engineers in their daily routine of undergoing in panned maintenance on the plant equipment and also on breakdowns diagnosing faults and then rectifying the problem. Also going through the process of planning our own work and the equipment and resources needed to carry them out.

I have learnt lots of new skills while working at the factory such as things like how to work with tools safely, all the safe working practices to work in the engineering environment. I have also been on lots of training courses to further enhance my skills such as, Festo course, Siemens course, confined space training etc.

I enjoy the hands on working with the engineers and on the tools learning first hand the experience for the job that I will be doing rather than all theory work in colleges etc. I enjoyed the outward bound experiences as well they were good fun and a good way to get to know the other apprentices.

The apprenticeship it self is well organised at work as we have rotation in place for the areas of the factory that we will work in for 6 month periods to gain knowledge of all the equipment in the different areas. However the theory side at college sometimes isn't organised very well by the college as there has been periods where we have been stuck for things to do due to the colleges lack of organisation.

There has been moments when I have struggled with college work and my employer has given me plenty of support to help with the situation I have been in by providing me with extra time in work to catch up on some work. This has helped greatly on some occasions.

When I have been at college doing my training I have received some support such as when we were struggling with deadlines due to the amount of work they were able to extend it for the whole class to help us. In past years at a different college the support was lacking but it has been much better at the current college.

I feel that the basic knowledge that we initially learnt at college was very beneficial in helping us to understand what we will be doing in the role however I feel the experience in working on the role with the engineers by far exceeds that in helping to prepare us for the job role.

As part of the apprenticeship in the first and second year we go on outward bound trips for a week to the lake district which are really fun and they help us to get to know the other apprentices and to bond with them. I only wish for there to be another one in the third and fourth year as well.

Yes

I would recommend Unilever to a friend because as an employer they look after you such as they provide a great pension scheme, shares schemes, subsidised private health care and annual bonus opportunities for everyone in their teams. They are such a big company yet still manage to look after their employees.

The tips I would give to someone applying would be to be themselves and just try to get involved and stuck in on assessment days etc as the more they put themselves out there the better chance they have. I would also say show examples of how you would enjoy working in the field of interest e.g. past experiences etc.