Higher Operations Apprentice Review

My role as an MBDA apprentice involves being moved around a lot of the different sections that will be available to me when I finish my apprenticeship. I do around three months on each placement shadowing skilled operators learning the ins and outs of each section while attending college one day a week to complete assignments and qualify for my qualifications at the end of the 4 years.

Since working for MBDA I have honed and developed a lot of my skills and attributes, this includes my organisational skills and more recently my ability to adapt and take to new jobs as I have a stronger base knowledge of the engineering field now. Organisation is key to ensure the workload is controlled and maintained.

I really enjoy my programme as everyone is very respectful towards apprentices and you do pick up everything really quickly. Personally I did not think I would have learned as much as I have in the first 6 months but as you are working to such a high class product you quickly develop and begin to feel more skilled.

In terms of organisation and structure of the apprenticeship everything is planned out and set in place so they understand exactly how your 4 years is going to go. My only criticism would be when working on section with operators work is not set in place for you so when you go onto a section you work on what is needed at the time rather than having structured training.

When working from day to day us apprentices receive extreme support as we are constantly having meeting to discuss any issues or improvements to the scheme. Throughout your time the company looks for new ways to enrich your 4 years and make it as useful as possible both on a personal level and professional.

Each couple of months we have a meeting with our representative from the training provider to discuss our progress and if there are any issues with making progress he is able to support us and help us manage and balance our time to have plenty to get everything done to the right standard.

The training provider alliance learning gave us a base knowledge of the engineering field and the different types of work done in other companies whilst our college training provides a lot of the theory knowledge for the work that you are doing only in a simpler form because on the apprenticeship the products are built to a very high standard.

At work the company constantly looks for ways to make your experience better and more valuable for when you come off the apprenticeship. For example our company has just taken on the D of E scheme and each year they send all of the sites to wales as a way to network across the sites and develop your personal skills further.

Yes

I would recommend this apprenticeship because while the wage is very generous at the same time you are becoming a professional in your trade, you are becoming more skilled than most people can say they are because working to such an important product the work you do must be perfect and you will definitely have a good time on the 4 year course.

My advice would be to apply as early as possible. and should you get to the interview stage do everything you can to stand out that extra bit. for example start an extra curricular project relevant to the job role so they can see how much you want the job and the lengths your willing to go to try and get it.