Engineering Technician Review

On the Engineering Technician apprenticeship you are on a rotation system that moves you between departments across the business that are relevant to the role that you originally applied for. Daily tasks include; working on projects that support the business, dealing with day to day situations that may arise, and attending regular team/performance meetings.

The skills learnt in the first year of the apprenticeship have not been used in the literal sense, but have been useful for background knowledge. The skills I have developed during my rotations have proved to be useful, especially the knowledge of how the business operates at a higher level. Learning how to use a data analytics package has been a different experience compared to other placements.

There are times in the programme that are more enjoyable than others, and this can depend on the workload you are given from the department you are in. If you are in a department that has a lot of interesting work available, then the time spent in that department go by very quickly. If the department does not have a lot of work, or work that is not mentally challenging, then time can be pass quite slowly.

The programme is well structured, but sometimes there can be issues with the departments that we are placed in. Once the issues are raised they are dealt with, but due to the timeframe of the placements, they are sometimes just left until that placement has finished. Due to the number of apprentices per apprentice manager, patience is required when organising introduction/exit meetings.

The employer does provide enough support when within a placement department. You are assigned your placement manager and then a mentor within that department, to which they are your first point of contact for any issues. The training school does hold meetings with the apprentices within the different programs as a group, but these are not attended by the manager of the training school. There is a lack of support in terms of equipment that is required for our placements. All placements require the use of a laptop and most (if not all) require the use of a company mobile, especially now new GDPR regulations are in place. These are not provided by the training school, and sometimes require the placement department to order new equipment for the apprentice to use.

The training provider (Oxford Brookes) generally offers a lot of support for the qualification we are undertaking. There is a lot of information to cover in the subjects, and sometimes time is pushed to complete all of the learning for the class tests/exams. But there is enough material to learn independently.

The mechanical engineering degree links in well with the practical learning within the placements. The qualification allows you to see how some of the tasks that are "day-to-day" were first accomplished. It also provides enough learning to be able to apply the teaching to more real-world scenarios that occur within the workplace.

There are very few opportunities outside of working hours that are organised by the apprenticeship team. There are chances to go to careers events, but there are limited spaces, and the same people tend to be selected for every event. These are not really social activities, but more the chance to share experiences of the apprenticeship to those that are looking at the next stage of their education. There is a Mini Challenge race team that operates from Plant Oxford, but this has very limited availability, and currently has a full team including 4 apprentices.

Yes

The BMW Group is a fantastic company and offers plenty of opportunities to get involved with engineering, business or other manufacturing ventures. As a global company it looks fantastic on your CV and is recognised as one of the best training/apprenticeships that you can be part of in the UK.

Ensure the application is submitted correctly, and you complete all of the questions on a word processing platform before submitting. Be prepared to do some online tests, and try not to panic if you don't hear a response instantly. Be open to what you are applying too, and ask a lot of questions regarding the role, and the training school will be able to guide you to an area of your interest.