Electrical Apprentice Review

as an electrical apprentice, I have 3 month placements around the company and so my day to day jobs change depending on my current placement. I have spent time in cable design, creating drawings and models. I have also spent time in purchasing, buying parts for the builds. currently I am in manufacturing which involves more practical work and the making up of cables and PCB's

I have learnt many skills such as business and debating techniques as well as practical and manufacturing techniques. they have all been very useful in the apprenticeship however some skills are very specific and I do not often find other ways of using these skills outside of work. modelling techniques and learning new software has been very interesting and also the apprenticeship has developed my public speaking and confidence.

I really enjoy the variety of work that the company has to offer, getting new placements and meeting new people adds a very sociable aspect to work; however I struggle with the college work given alongside my actual work. I find it difficult to keep up to date with everything and it bothers me when my college work does not relate to the things I am doing at work at all.

the scheme is very well structured, the placement plans are thought out and altered to meet some individuals strengths and hobbies however this is not always the case. some placements are much more suited to a certain type of individual and the staff in the placement always expect their apprentice to know everything about what they are doing without offering any information. times like this is where I feel like the programme is not so well organised as with the changing placements, departments are going to be meeting new apprentices often and they may not have the same amount of knowledge as the previous apprentice or another member of staff.

my employer does very well to assist with all the apprentices and graduates needs and I can understand that they are very busy a lot of the time but they do well to keep up to date with the apprentices. the company often host workshops for apprentices to meet new people and allow their transition into work easier. I regularly have meetings with my employer to discuss ongoing issues I am having or problems I am facing and they are always very helpful

The college do not offer enough support in my opinion. recently, with the frequent change of tutors, we have had a very small amount of teaching and do not get enough feedback on how we are doing with the work. without this feedback, I cannot grasp where I am going wrong with certain subjects and I am left in the dark as to whether I am achieving or not.

in some placements, I feel like having the background knowledge is helpful from college and it helps me to understand the things I am doing in work. however in most cases, the topics that we are taught in college have next to no relevance in work. the topics in college can be very challenging and are very in depth about things that I have never needed to use outside of college.

yes, the company offer lots of external activities as well as internal activities. they do lots of sports competitions and charity events externally that many people like to get involved in. internally, they have networking events, talks from customers and also scenario workshops. for example, I took part in a security workshop that taught me lots of information about what to do in the case of a security breach. I found this very interesting.

Yes

my answer is yes due to the variety of jobs that they have to offer at MBDA, though vastly engineering based, the business and sales opportunities are great and give you a real insight into a different sort of role. although it can be frustrating moving placements all the time, it is a great opportunity to work in different environments, doing different jobs to see which role you would like to end up in.

make sure that you know your stuff. many departments in MBDA require a lot of knowledge of the stuff you're working with. the apprenticeship does help with this however background research into what you're doing helps a lot. sometimes people expect you to already know these things and they will talk about it to you. this can be very confusing when you have no knowledge of what they're talking about. this is why it is very important to ask questions about the things you struggle with.