Engineering Apprentice Review

My day to day life currently involves myself and my colleague full time at the training provider (Harlow college). this involves our practical lessons within the mornings and our theory based learning done in the afternoons. the theory lessons include a number of knowledge questions in which we have since completed.

Since starting the apprenticeship my practical skills have yet to be tested at the college however in the work place with support from the technicians my knowledge has been tested - this often leads to a learn experience for myself when on-site. however theory based exercises have since tested my knowledge and my current knowledge has been expanded.

Overall the apprenticeship scheme is Great, the only negative is the fuss we have had to endure with college, however with the continuous support from MAG management these issues are since being sorted, yet sometimes the college tend to sugar coat this issues which we have which in turn leave us worse off further down line. I cannot thank MAG management for their continued support and help throughout the issues in which we have had across the last 7/8 months. I think without he support from MAG the experience would be wildly different.

The structure in which the apprenticeship is laid out has come across as a come confusion from the educational side partly thanks to the new apprenticeship standard which has thrown some confusion into the further education studies in which we intend to complete across the 3rd and 4th year. Never the less the structure across the board is good - however there is room for improvement from the college.

I speak for myself and colleagues when I say the support we have had from the moment we started to where we are now is phenomenal, from the smaller issues to the large ones the management from MAG has always listened and done there best to sort our issues. the overall support from my employer is outstanding and is far above my expectation.

from the start it has been clear that there is issues from the training provider. none of the less we have since made good progress in the delivery of our education. The overall support from the provider is below average and is something that definitely needs to be looked into/ worked on.

around 60% of the skills we learn and undertake at the college are relevant, however I feel it would be better try to relate some more of the educational work to the physical work in which we undertake in the workplace. further more this may not be possible due to the nature of the qualification.

to my knowledge, there are social events such as the Christmas events, also there are awards evenings etc. Also across the airport such as security, they have been out paint-balling and go-karting, further more we are often meeting our manger for a coffee and over this we will, discuss our review, our performance and any issues or concerns in which we may have.

Yes

Once again this is mainly because of the continues support in which we are offered, even when we are offsite permanently. I feel there is no issue in which we couldn't raise with out management team that they would ignore, since the day we started there has been continued re-assurance and support and this continues to this day and is something myself and my colleagues value greatly.

I would personally advise to take a very professional and confident attitude towards the willingness to learn and carry this forward through the process of application through emails - interviews etc. Do not be afraid to ask plenty of questions- bringing enthusiasm, a professional attitude and willingness to learn is essential, after all the idea of the apprenticeship is to learn across the period of time to eventually become an engineering technician by the end of the 4 year scheme.