Caulker Review

At present I am currently studying at Furness College before moving onto the BAE site in Barrow in Furness. Once onsite I shall be concentrating on more trade related programs in the SASK. Whilst here at Furness College I have been completing Under Pinning Knowledge and various Fabrication and Welding assessments in the workshop. I have not touched on anything at the moment that is trade specific (only thermal cutting and grinding) but look forward to moving onto site and getting taught more about my role and the processes involved.

Being an older / mature student it has been a while since I have touched these skills so although not starting from scratch it has been a phase of reminding myself of what I had already learnt. Along the way I have not only developed dormant skills but I have also learnt lots of new skills.

As a more mature apprentice i was apprehensive about working with young adults / school leavers but now things have settled down and everybody is cracking on with the task at hand. I am retraining into a completely new trade but alot of skills I have picked up through previous jobs are helping me with this new role and I am finding that it is just fine tuning previous skills that I had.

Although the start of the apprenticeship starts at Furness College I feel that instead of having to take Term holidays it would be more advantageous to spend time in the training school on site learning more trade specific stuff, as they now have the Gouging bays up and running I feel it would be very beneficial to take full advantage of that facility. My wife works for BAE and we do not want to plan holidays around school holidays as we are of a more mature age and dont just want to spend 5 or 6 nights away.

We have a very good point of contact whilst at college and any problems or issues we may have are soon sorted, [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] is not just there for work related issues but any personal issues that you may have can be brought to her attention and if she can help then she will.

With Furness College as the training provider for the course that I am currently undertaking I think that sometimes they do not know what to do with us? They informed us over the last couple of weeks that the Underpinning Knowledge assessments have now changed to a diffferent format for 01, 02 and 03. This has added to the first 2 or 3 weeks when we were given the wrong UPK's to do and also it has become apparent that we have not had a lesson on how to use the BAE Learning Assistant properly so no doubt we will have not done something right when uploading information onto that. We were also told that we would be doing the Mock Exam on Mon 03 Feb and the proper Exam on the 10 Feb before we break up for half term but this has now slipped a week so we have mock on the 10 Feb then nearly 2 weeks before the real exam. The Workshop tutors have been brilliant!

By the time I will be leaving College to go into the Training School on site that will be nearly 10 months, and the only thing that we will have carried that relates towards my trade of Caulker will be Grinding and Thermal Cutting. I am happy that I am able to get the NVQ Level 2 Fabrication and Welding qualification but nothing in the wokshop has really shown me what the real role I will be doing when I leave college. I would really like to spend time in the Training School when forced to take school holidays so that I can get a better understanding of the role of Caulker.

At present still being at College the only extra-curricular activity that I am involved in is the Student Council which I have carried out to the best of my ability and once in the business proper I shall endeavour to carry this on. I have also tried to get on an evening class for Commercial Welding (I applied 2 or 3 weeks after starting at College) and to date I am still waiting, even though it is supposed to be, roughly, a 10 week turnaround. I have also enquired about a CAD course that was supposedly starting last year, to which I would have willingly paid for myself, buut once again that does not seem to be going ahead.

Yes

I believe that once you have left the College environment and you actually start working and learning alongside your own trades people then the real work starts with the real trades people that you may be working with for the rest of your working life. I believe the workplace will be a great environment to work in and your work colleagues will make it a safe and friendly place to be.

The only tips or advice to any others that are applying to become an apprentice is that you are never to old! Being 54 my only regret is that I should have done it earlier. Don't try and bluff your way through the application process because further on down the line you will be found out, but probably the best bit of advice would be try your hardest let people see who you are and be safe in everything that you do.