Engineering Higher Apprentice Review

Varies from placement to placement e.g. in design services there is a mix between creating CAD drawings and going out on ship to carry out surveys.

Software skills: excel, AutoCAD, drawing databases Work practices: Understanding of standard drawing practices, planning and upkeep phases of ship upkeeps, understanding of ships and their various systems & equipment.

Enjoyable programme, plenty of focus on development both through qualifications and work place experience to gain a wide understanding of the work done by company sector. Work content varies from placement to placement keeping the work interesting by varying what you do. Not everything is the most exciting task as with any job (admin, writing up etc.) but these support the more enjoyable and interesting work which keeps you keen to learn more.

Clear structure for program duration, full time college first year, then day release with 4 month rotations 2-3 year, and 4th year full time in exit role. Placements have some flexibility to move placement rotations by a week or so and we are able to make our own input into the type of placements we will undertake. Some organisation with the college could be improved as there can sometimes be a gap in knowledge between the college and the company training team.

Good amount of support, with an apprenticeship manager who we can book 121s with or email for queries. Training assessor for NVQ who is great at helping determine work done that is applicable to the NVQ criteria which otherwise may have been missed out. Placement managers who we initially meet to understand the placement we will be doing, if we don't regularly talk or work with them then there will be someone else on the project that we talk to and work with frequently and most people are happy to answer questions. There is usually plenty of encouragement to go and see work that is being done, e.g. going along on surveys to understand the work others carry. Tasks given to both develop your experience whilst still being of benefit and contributing to the project as well as helping meet the NVQ criteria. Work can be tailored to meet the NVQ criteria to support our completion of the NVQ and obtain all of the necessary competencies. There are 12 week reviews where there is an opportunity to chat with our training assessor and placement manager about how work and college has been going, progression of objectives, if we have any problems or questions, safeguarding etc. Training/placement managers are easy to talk to and ask questions to.

We have a day release at college for HND and 2 hours allocated per week for NVQ work which is flexible for whenever in the week we have time for it. There is an opportunity to talk about college and NVQ in 121s and 12 week reviews. There's plenty of support for NVQ work being able to arrange meetings with our training assessor to go through evidence packs, and get question packs signed off. Can sometimes be a bit of a struggle for time when working on a busy project whilst having assignments due however, there is an understanding of ensuring apprentices don't work too many hours. It is also sometimes hard to manage setting aside time for NVQ in the office as it is often more useful in the short term to get a piece of work done. Working hours are also flexible which is useful for differing schedules and working a few less hours one week to focus on an assignment and then working a bit longer in other weeks when there are no assignments set.

It is useful for having a background understanding of engineering principles as well as interesting to know but often the content learnt in class doesn't come up in real world work. It varies depending on the placement however for a lot of roles you do not need to know the complex maths or principles as there is often a spread sheet or similar in which you can input the variables you know to get the result out that you require, e.g. materials suitable for a certain level of stress. If you do use work in your role it is useful to know it beforehand however you usually need to relearn it anyway as it can be a while between learning it and actually using it. For example, learning how to bench fit gives a really good understanding of how parts can be made which is useful for equipment/materials chosen and the work that other people will need to undertake, but nowadays parts are more likely to be outsourced and machined so subjects such as Applications of Machine Tools and CAM provided more benefit than bench fitting.

There are various STEM and Stretch assignments which apprentices can be asked to do or put their names forward for. It is generally expected that apprentices will take part where they can but it is up to the individual. These provide a great networking opportunity as well as getting involved with other areas (e.g. management, early careers) even if you are not interested in those other areas you gain an appreciation of the work that goes into it and areas which can cause issues from other areas' sides which can come in useful in the future. There is an outward bounds trip in the second year where you meet apprentices from other areas of the business. This is very active with activities such as raft building and ghyll scrambling whilst having a strong structure of company values and personal/team development. Socially, there are activities that apprentices put together themselves, e.g. a weekly football, pub crawls, which apprentices can enjoy. This is due to the apprentices getting on well with each other and meeting up ourselves rather than company organised events. There's generally a good relationship between apprentices and so we often meet up outside of work. There are sometimes professional events which we can go along to. Even if were have heard of an event from elsewhere that we think may be beneficial there is still an option to tell our training manager about it as they may support it as a beneficial thing for apprentices to do.

Yes

I have had a good experience going through this apprenticeship and it offers a properly structured apprenticeship as opposed to other apprenticeships I have known some people go through apprenticeships where they are only there are cheap labour and have no interest in developing the apprentice. This apprenticeship has good pay (high above minimum for apprentices) which goes up each year, multiple qualifications that you are supported through as well as actual work experience where you will be given meaningful tasks to do rather than just being there to make tea and coffee. It is a good alternative to uni where you would spend a lot of money but not get any experience unless you get an industrial placement. You will also be ahead of graduates as in the 3 years it takes to get a degree you will have 2 years industrial experience already giving you an advantage for jobs.

Have a keen interest in how and why things work (for engineering roles particularly), be driven, don't be concerned about not knowing about what you will be working on (e.g. ships) as they are more interested in how you can apply what you already know and your potential to grow and learn more.