Telecoms apprentice Review

You start off this 3 year scheme by staying at Westwood in Coventry for around 6 months. the day to day of this element is class room based learning 8-4pm, with some practical topics, working towards completing the coursework for your NVQ. The rest of the time is your free time, you can leave site but you must be back for crewfew. After westwood you go onto your depot, working within your team there. this is where i started to have problems. I was a telecomms apprentice, working with the techs at depot. The official working hours were 8am-3pm monday to friday. However, this was not the reality, my normal day ended up being 10am-1/2pm. This sounds great at first, but over some time is gets boring really fast. Telecomms works differently to other disciplines, e.g track. in the way that we were "home start" so do not have to go to depot for our shifts. You speak with your manger on a group call and the head to site whenever the tech can be bothered. My working day would go: 8am conference call where line manager tells you task for the day and who you are working with. Meet the other team member on site (or get picked up by them if you dont have a van yet) around 9:30/10. Normally have to wait another 30/60mins because the tech would be late. Finally begin working, normally simple maintenance tasks or try and fix a fault. This would involve me standing still and doing nothing while the tech tries to fix something before giving up and passing it onto someone else. I would always be asking questions trying to learn, most of the time this was answered with 'i dont know'. this would go on for a hour or 2 before driving home again. I spent a year at depot before leaving the scheme, within that year i only did around 5 hands on tasks(properly 20mins a piece), the rest of the time was spent standing still and not learning.

I came into this scheme a total novice, having never studying engineering or physics beforehand. During westwood you cover the basic engineering and maths principles, but a lot of time is spent doing health and safety assignments or 'BIT' - a business sorta thing. I did learn a lot during this time, but nothing railway or telecoms related. The tutors at westwood are mostly all ex-military and have no railway experience so you cant get this information from them. As i mentioned before, i pretty much learned nothing from being a depot apart from a great deal of patience. So leaving that, after westwood you will continue the NVQ and level 3 award learning at HMS Sultan. You go down there for 2/3 weeks at a time with your class. This learning is railway themed. The quality of your learning just depends on your tutor, different apprentices will have a different tutor and opinion. the big issue with academic learning is how unorganised is it. It can be very frustrating at times. But if you have a good tutor and a line manager who in switched on about the apprenticeship you should be fine. I was fortunate, during my time on the scheme i got to go on many training courses in Walsall for telecoms skills. It was my time here that i learned 90% of the knowledge i left the apprenticeship with. These courses arent just for apprentices, but for all telecoms staff so the level of learning is much higher. The quality of teaching on these courses is excellent. I believe there are similar courses available for other disciplines.

Overall i had a very negative experience during my time with network rail. Please know that most of the other apprentices i know through the scheme are really enjoying their apprenticeship. (the girls not so much). This job really weighs heavily on your team and management at depot. If you have nice, supportive colleagues at depot you should be fine! Also, having a line manager that knows the apprenticeship and wants to support you is key. I think a lot of depots take on apprentices for the wrong reasons. As said before, the day to day of the role was shocking and just left me bored and miserable. However, there are some other important events that made my experience so poor. i am a 19 year old girl, who unfortunately really wanted to try peruse a career in a male dominated environment. The 'sexism' i experienced was not extreme, but enough to push me to leave in the end. firstly, the tutors at westwood are all male which can make being a female student difficult. [This section of the comment has been removed by a member of the RateMyApprenticeship Team because it did not meet our site terms and conditions] As i joined depot, it turned out none of the 14 telecoms tech had ever worked with a women! They seemed completely lost on how to interact with me, as a result i never ever felt part of that team. Countless times i would just be ignored on jobs while the 'lads chatted'. [This section of the comment has been removed by a member of the RateMyApprenticeship Team because it did not meet our site terms and conditions] These people werent ever being intentional nasty but these comments and that treatment starts to get you down. I once spoke to my line manager about my experiences and highlighted issues i was having with a certain team member. My manager spoke with him about it. This team member responded by not working with me for months and when we did finally see each other, he just had a go - saying 'if i have a problem say it to his face'.

I found the scheme to be fairly well organised, however others would disagree. For example, one apprentice was half way through westwood when he was told his depot never knew he was joining and wasn't in the position to take him! There would often be confusion over things at westwood and depot. Such as, last minute changes dates for HMS sultan visits or courses. You might find yourself chasing up a few bits here and there, but most things ran smoothly.

Your experience starts at westwood, during this time i feel there was a lot of support. academically, your tutors are willing to help with assignments. They also run evening classes most nights for anyone struggling. There are also penalty of staff on site who can support you in your personal lives. They are all very understanding and compassionate. - most importantly, fun. During your stays at HMS sultan, everything is much more relaxed than westwood. But there is still support on site 24/7. Like i said before if you have a good tutor at sultan, you'll be fine and supported during this time. At depot, i had a fairly supported line manager. He gave me time to complete assignments when needed, when act on any issues i had, sort any paperwork/admin for my apprenticeship, and near the end of my time there he knew i wasn't learning so arranged for me to visit better techs up north.

The trainers at westwood gave great support towards our qualifications, you definality get out what you out it. Once westwood is over you complete the rest of your coursework at home whilst working at depot. This coursework is issued to you by your HMS sultan tutor. You dont really get much help for this coursework, unless you reach out to your tutor, which can be difficult.

Westwood just provides you with basic engineering principles. After some time and a few trips to sultan you start to gather the railway knowledge you need. The internal courses give you a good insight into your role. I found these courses the most useful in performing my role, not so much the qualification. The level 3 is great to get and will open so many doors, but isnt great to translate into the real job. But that important knowledge comes with the on the job training.

During westwood, the gym team try and put on a variety of sporting activities. Even though health and safety does hold them back, they try their best to keep you busy during your stay. Some apprenticeships ran charity events, like fun runs. You made your own fun at westwood, so you can arrange any sort of activity you like. After westwood, they are some different things to get involved in. I know of apprentices who are very involved in recruitment and promotion. Personally, i helped in the recruitment and went to networking events from this. I was also invited to work in a profession working group for designing a new training course.

No

Despite there being many apprentices that i know who really enjoy the scheme, i cannot ignore the negative experiences i had. This apprenticeship has been a massive let down for me and ultimately i ended up leaving during my second year. I was very unlucky with the people i was working with and the workload in my area. I would not recommend taking the risk and going for this apprenticeship.

The application process for this apprenticeship is very good! the recruitment team are very responsive and supportive. The process starts with online based questioning, then a simple telephone interview before the assessment centre. i have done some other apprenticeships assessment centres and other interviews after the apprenticeship. Out of them all the network rail was by far the most relaxed and simple! I have helped out at assessment centres for network rail, and the scoring is as follows: each stage of the day is scored out of 5. within the group task, just make sure you speak up! just offer any suggestions, any questions, try and lead to conversation for top marks. Make sure listen to others and show you can be a team member too. The interview is very relaxed, it consists of some situation based questions. Just keep your answered health and safety focused! Overall, keep professional throughout and be yourself!