Apprentice Review

My job role as an apprentice is to learn the principles of engineering, and then use these principles out on the railway to allow maintenance, renewals and other forms work to be able to be undertaken in order to improve the railway for the travelling public and other forms of railway customers.

I have learnt both new skills and I have developed existing skills also. A couple of examples of such skillls include how to work in teams and how to remain cool whilst under a lot of pressure in order to still maintain a steady and quality work ethic which meets the deadlines for everthing that I am undertaking.

I have mixed enjoyment over my programme as there can be various occurrences of miscommunication and it can be therefore confusing as what is going to occur which can therefore be frustrating. The first part of the apprenticeship at Westwood is very basic and no track experience is gained or minimally gained, but the training at Sultan and at depot provide much more relevant and enjoyable experience.

The structure is very good for learning a discipline and gaining the required engineering knowledge to carry out the tasks that the company deal with, however, as good as it is, it thoroughly caters for only fraction of the disciplines that are actually employed within the apprenticeship program. So this means that some apprentices in a particular discipline has to carry out training and duties of another discipline which they would not normally undertake as part of their own work in order for them to pass the apprenticeship which is unfair on them.

The employer provides a lot of support and it strives to offer this throughout the whole organisation. The employer is a leading employer in regards to this and it treats all apprentices as they would their other employees and provides them with the same services and support that all of the other employees recieve too.

The training provider is good at providing support in regards to the work that the apprentices undertake, but this is left down to the tutors to carry out. This means that the support is as best as the tutor can provide due to difference in levels of experience, attitude and topic speciality.

Having completed a similar set of qualifications within a college course I therefore had an understanding of engineering. The apprenticeship followed this very similarly and was only slightly different and everything had to be linked to the rail industry as a standard. Some work carried out on track requires you to actually use the information learned for the qualifications so then this adds to how perform on in your role. But a majority of training adds very little and you can only benefit after having attended Sultan for practical training or depot itself to immerse yourself with your new colleagues and teams.

I have been involved in playing badminton with colleagues out of office hours as a team building exercise. I have also socialised with other colleagues out of hours after work, to just have a chat and just gather socially. I've also played pool, table tennis and football with various other work colleagues just for socialising events.

Yes

Network Rail is a very employee-focused and customer-focused company alike as it cares greatly to strive for it's customers and provide competitive services and salaries to it's employees. The salary of the apprentoceship scheme is competitive in regards to other apprenticeships, but it still provides enough where saving money can occur with ease and overtime and extra shift premiums are very good for some additional money. The apprenticeship also provides many opportunities for future careers and the security of a job in regards to this (providing you do the work).

I would advise that you read up on the disciplines carefully and chose what you find most interesting and what sounds most enjoyable for you. Read apprentice profiles to get the inside story from their personal experience within Network Rail. Search Network Rail on the internet to see what work they undertake and what jobs you may want to work towards, be qualified for or even the opposite so you are clued up with your future career prosects.