Apprentice electrician Review

Depends on the type of work available from SSE. Some months were spent cleaning store rooms due to lack of jobs, other months depended on which jobs were won and available to take bodies so some of the jobs involved labouring for cable jointers (mixing resin in buckets handing them tools etc) some months were spent cutting up SWA cable with other apprentices in the depot yard. Very few of our jobs actually involved in depth experience of electrical work.

I have enhanced my practical skills and have a better understanding on how to install various types of wiring systems and how to select which system best suits the needs of the installation. My hand skills have improved with my speed of work vastly increasing over the years of training.

I enjoyed meeting the other staff and working alongside them and also the ability to both attend college whilst keeping a full time job to both develop my skills and understanding whilst earning, however more work from SSE and a better structured training from them would’ve been much better

The programme from SSE failed to provide all training necessary to set us up for being confident for our FICA assessment, if it wasn’t for the newly appointed apprentice coordinator Louis Stewart I feel that we would’ve struggled even more to pass as he started the role near the end of my apprenticeship and tried his best to rush all the training necessary for us before our assessment whether it was through videos or books or a booth set up in the office

Only support that we recieved throughout the time at the company was when Louis Stewart was given the role of apprentice coordinator this is when we finally had a guy that was dedicated to help us with any issues we raised, before him we were speaking to brick walls with none of our issues actually being listened to we were just fed lies to keep us in line.

The only support in this type of view was given whenever it suited the company, if there was a job that needed a specific type of qualification or training then some would get it just so the job could get done, it was never purely to benefit the improvements of training for the individual

As it stands I still view myself as an apprentice after completing my trade test for the last 6 months as I allong with the others who passed under SSE feel we are still not confident or competent enough due to our limited experience and knowledge of all areas that we will come across as a qualified electrician

There are no events available like this, we come to work and go home there is no team bonding events available within our company, squad morale is always low and there is no attempt from managerial or director level to improve this, we are purely just numbers to the company.

No

There is no appreciation from the company whatsoever towards the staff, we don’t get any praise or acknowledgement, we do not receive any team bonding events, we do not get any help with furthering ourselves in development or training this only gets given if it is in the interest of the company.

Make sure to do plenty of self study when you start up your apprenticeship don’t rely on the company to help you as it is very rare that this help will be given, if you find yourself to have a coordinator like Louis Stewart who genuinely cares about employees as he is just off the tools himself and has experienced the lack of training the company management provides then don’t hesitate to ask them for assistance as you will be lucky to have someone there who cares