apprentice plumber Review

As an apprentice plumber I would install sanitaryware, internal and external drainage pipe, commercial and domestic plumbing systems, commercial and domestic heating systems. I would order materials, accept deliveries, work with other trades on site. Work from site drawings. I was responsible for my own safety and the safety of my colleagues at all times and responsible for the quality of my work. I worked on several projects ranging in different sizes, from domestic heating systems to plumbing systems in schools, hospitals and other commercial properties.

I learned a lot of hand skills and how to use different tools, I definitely noticed a big difference in my problem solving abilities and working on a building site boosted my confidence considerably. I feel I developed my communication techniques as I constantly had to maintain a good working relationship with the site agent, my own supervisor and other trades that we were working with at all times.

I thoroughly enjoyed the work that I took part in, I enjoyed learning new skills and developing the skills to gain my trade qualification. I found the training was somewhat thorough and I was given enough responsibility to make me feel like my work was important and made an impact.

The programme had a well organised structure with regular feedback opportunities to a mentor, my organisation ensured to their best ability that I was always working on something that would help improve my skills and that I had a competent tradesperson to work beside at all times.

My organisation ensured that I had a meeting with my mentor at least every 12 weeks in which I had the opportunity to share any concerns, I feel like the concerns that I did raise were taken seriously and dealt with and I was made aware of the outcome. I also had ample support from my on site supervisor.

The college I attended did offer support but I feel that this was not always followed through, I feel that I was not treated as an individual and that it was difficult to work towards my qualification whilst at college. However, there were some support options in place and I believe that they worked to the best of their ability.

The theory side of my trade that I learned through my college was mandatory to my role as a plumber, it is important to learn a lot of basic numeracy and literacy aspects that the college helped me with. However a lot of the work through my college I felt was too slow paced and not specific enough.

My organisation puts a lot of effort into encouraging extra curricular activities as well as encouraging individuals to start up their own activities, there are a lot of groups available for everyone and it is easy to feel included with the activities that are available. There are also a lot of networking events available throughout work, that everyone is encouraged to partake in.

Yes

There are good benefits, such as the pension scheme, share scheme, a lot of employee discounts at different retailers. It is a well established organisation that is developing a lot of innovating work to bring it in to the future. There are so many different roles within the organisation and I genuinely believe that they want to keep their employees and they encourage their employees to retrain and move within different areas of the business, which ensures everybody has plenty of opportunity for growth.

Safety is one of the organisations core values, so showing a good knowledge of safety concerns would be a benefit. There are lots of different business areas and it is worth looking at the careers page to see what is available because there really is something for everyone and if you want to develop or work towards something then SSE will help you towards that.