Maintenance Apprentice Review

My role within the BMW group is a maintenance apprentice. This means that my role involes working with the maintenance team to find and fix faults that occur across the line. Faults and breakdowns are either electrical, mechanical or fluid power and must be delt with immediately to maintain the production being produced.

I feel as though I have learnt a lot of new skills as well as developing existing skills I already had by working with other technicians that have had years of experience in this job role. I have done this by having hands on experience in the workplace and at college learning the theoretical side of how things work.

The programme here at BMW is outstanding. The structure of the apprenticeship is well organised with lots of ways to push yourself and improve you knowledege of engineering. I am really enjoying this programme so far and I feel as though people can go far in this company if they really pushed themselves.

The programme that BMW supply is very well organised with everything planned in advance, such as provided training, on or off site. As an apprentice, working in different deparments around the factory allows you to understand the company a lot more, therefore placements in different departments are given to each apprentice so they can spend around 3 months there before moving onto another one. These placements are all planned out and organised by BMW.

As an apprentice, I receive a lot of support from my employer. This will be done by weekly or monthly meetings with either your training manager or mentor to see how you are getting on. This is where you discuss any problems you may have or any questions that need answering. The company will always try their best to help to make you feel as comfortable as possible with any issues you may have.

Meetings with your training provider are on a weekly basis to see your progress and how you are getting on with all the given work. The training provider will set you targets and deadlines to complete work by so you are on track to reach your qualification. If you have any issues with the work, your training provider will provide as much support as you need to keep you on track.

By aiming to gain a qualification, it motivates me to learn more about the company and increase my skills and knowledge with hands on experienece. The qualities I learn and develop when trying to achieve the qualification helps me perform better in my job role by having a better understanding and perspective of the responsibilities I have in my job role.

There are many extra-curricular activities you can get involved in at work. As a company we do a lot for charity and try and raise as much money as we can through doing football tournament and cake sales. This is also a good way to improve team bonding skills to take back into the workplace. At work we also provide a gym for employees to go to at their own leisure.

Yes

Not only is BMW a huge company to work for, but the qualifications you can achieve whilst in your apprenticeship and when you come out and do further education is outstanding and BMW will support you all the way. The employees here are very skilled and knowledgeable and will help you improve as much as you can when working with them as they will give you hands on experience of what the job role involves. The company provide a lot of training for apprentices up and down the country and they will take you to the other BMW plants to show you what their environment is like to work in.

When applying to the BMW group you just need to be confident in what you do and express what you have achieved in life and where you see yourself going within the BMW group. This is a great company to work for and you will go far with the qualifications you have earnt, along with hard work and determination.