operations apprentice Review

I am an electrical fitter working on sub systems at mbda. this includes wiring, looming, mechanical assembly, part marking, soldering amongst other things. day to day ill arrive at my bench open my toolbox and clock onto my job before getting stuck into it, I might have to go cut wires etc to prep then start the work at hand

IPC certified in soldering and dynamic cabling. multiple personal development courses. an electronics course held in kent. participated at national level in world skills and I have two NVQ's and two HNC's in electrical and mechanical engineering. these have made my career pathways open up considerably as I can work on all aspects of work

I enjoyed it thoroughly, I wish we could have spent more time doing the vocational training at alliance learning doing milling and turning, domestic wiring, hydraulics etc as I found it interesting and it would have helped with world skills. generally wigan and leigh college was average. as with most colleges of vocational qualifications, they were short staffed, underpaid and the course was lacking

the structure with regards to going to college, completing an nvq and placements is rather good, mbda is very good at training you to be good at your job at mbda but doesn't necessarily train you that well if you were to move elsewhere in future. basically you aren't trained 100% at everything you just know what you need to know

the support from MBDA employees is what makes mbda a great place to work. people are willing to help you as best they can. from our managers it can be difficult as we have one manager running 3 sites (Bolton, Stevenage and Bristol) who is based in Stevenage so it was hard to get a hold of them sometimes

the training provider wasn't the best, but was of a similar quality to all other available options around. the course was a bit of a mess and the tutors passion wasn't all there. many a time losing assignments or saying youd got a distinction one day then the next week it was just a pass etc

honestly it doesn't. everything I do at work I could do without going to college. college gives you the theory of what we do and a knowledge of the components we're using but in terms of the work I do, I barely remember anything from college as it isn't used, nor useful to remember

we have a charity team which I am a part of and we run many activities throughout the year. last year we had an 80th anniversary celebration. we will soon have a sports and social club again which should be good for the mbda community to have inter-section football matches etc

Yes

why not? great workplace, great people. we have a good pension scheme, share scheme, benefits scheme and everything you need. they are very understanding of personal situations and people will go out of their way to help you. its a community more than a workplace. we all do our part.

have hobbies/interests, make sure that engineering is the sector you want to work in and make sure you have plenty projects to show off in an interview. if you aren't committed enough to complete a 4 year scheme that includes college/further education you can instead look at semi skilled options which don't require further education