Design Engineer Review

Being a Design engineer I will come into work at around 8am and start working, this involves creating 2D and 3D models for the aircraft we currently manufacture. I could also be creating technical drawings for these aircraft

I have learnt an abundance of new skills during the apprenticeship, from how to work with my hands in my first year, to becoming a proper technician and being able to work well in a team. This also helped a lot with my confidence which was a big struggle when starting the programme.

I love the apprenticeship programme here at BAE Systems, it has given me a lot of opputunities to develop my personal skills in many different ways. From my general engineering ability to my people skills. The apprenticeship team are brilliant with helping you through the apprenticeship and the bonus of a job at the end is great.

The apprenticeship programme at BAE Systems is very well structured as the years are clearly set out so you know what will be going on within each year, it is a great way to run the apprenticeship. It is also very well organised as everything will be done to help finish on time, however due to the amount of people on the course looking out for yourself and being proactive is a must.

I can receive as much or as little support as I would like from my employer. There is always someone there to talk to if I need help with anything this could be from college to the apprenticeship to actual work within the business. However if I don't feel like I need the help and I can tackle any problems myself then no one will intervene.

I receive a lot of support when it comes to qualifications as they are a great thing to have and they understand this. They will help you in any way they can to help you along the way offering catch-up sessions for anyone who is falling behind in any way.

The qualification that I am receiving from the provider is an aeronautical engineering qualification and I feel like this directly impacts the role that I have within BAE Systems as it is exactly what I am doing in the business on a day to day basis. This can be really helpful most of the time and never has any negative impact on my work.

There are thousands of extra-curricular activities running within BAE Systems running at any particular time, there is departmental sporting events, there is social events set up by employees, there is networking events for apprentices and there is also charity events that will either be set up by employees or for the company. This could be from a raffle to a cake sale.

Yes

I have recommended BAE Systems to many of my friends already because it is a great way to get into the world of engineering and gives you a great stepping stone on to basically anything you can set your mind to, the apprenticeship scheme is great along with the work afterwards.

Make sure to mention everything that you do in school and out of school, being punctual is very important with any interview. when applying you must also be ready to be tested on maths and English, with some engineering thrown in there. It is also important to have a good ongoing project to talk about, whether this have been finished or in the works.