Trainee Service Engineer Review

Training to be a service engineer for the DEK printers and SIPLACE machines. A service engineer's role holds many responsibilities, all of which involve travelling to customers. Perform annual/routine maintenance of machines, perform upgrades per customer request, install new machines and be on call to fix machines that have gone down. Day to day I am either doing these tasks or training to be able to do them.

I have learnt many new skills, even those that aren't engineering related as my job role involves a lot of travelling and social interactions. studying towards an HNC through a local college. I have completed Micron level 1 and SX level 1 training courses with certificates to prove as well as being heavily involved in production which improved my team working skills

i really enjoy my role due to the fluidity of it, my day to day role can change at any second as well as all the travel. the team i work close with i feel i get on really well with and like a lot of those i don't directly work alongside. the company has met all expectations and enjoy working in it.

Due to changes in HR the first few months were fairly unorganised and to this day i have never had an induction of any kind. Other than that, the organisation from my manager and other mentors has been great. i have received a lot of support from multiple areas across the company which have helped me get to the point i am at now.

i don't receive support from HR and so far feel their organisation is poor. However i get a really good amount of support from my manager and mentors within my team which has pushed me to do well. If i have any issues there are a lot of people i can freely talk to across a range of departments. The attitude from most people towards helping me has been very positive.

I receive some support from my employer however as this is a college run course they are not obligated to help. The support from the college itself has been hit or miss depending on the lecturer, out of the 4 i have, 3 have been excellent and helped me achieve the grades i want. the 4th however has made me dislike a subject i previously enjoyed due to poor attitudes toward support, teaching and communication.

whilst i have found this qualification interesting and have learnt a lot from it, the majority of the HNC doesn't apply to my role as a service engineer as a lot of the knowledge i need is from the companies machines, which i can only get from more experience.

So far i haven't been involved in many social events although there have been some i have been interested in that I haven't been able to attend because of scheduling. i do plan on attending some in the future as this company has a fantastic social team that organise many activities.

Yes

I would recommend the apprenticeships programme as it has given me many opportunities from gaining qualifications to valuable work experience within the engineering industry. The company has treated me really well and supported me throughout. This isn't just my role i have found this in, many other apprentices appear to enjoy it as much as i do.

The main quality you should show is willingness to learn and the attitude towards the job, i have found i am not expected to know much however that's okay as long as i ask questions and learn from mistakes. Communication is big as well, just make sure not to hide anything.