Commission Engineer Apprentice Review

This job is site based, meaning you will spend all of your working life away from home during this role. Siemens build substations, which are often located in remote areas of Scotland. The closest sites to home (the North East) are at least a 3 hour drive away and can be anything up to an 8-9 hour drive away. During your time away, you will need to stay in accommodation. You can book this yourself and claim it back through the expense system. Your first year will be the only time you get to spend at home as this will be when you are studying your HNC at college. After that, you will be sent to site. Do not expect to be carrying out your job role as soon as you go to site, as you will be made to do loads of other jobs before you get the chance to carry out your own role. You need to constantly ask senior management to get the opportunity to do your own job or they will just keep you on other tasks which best suit themselves. Furthermore, although the job may say it is "field based", you do not change locations regularly. You will stay on the same site for at least a few months and, in some cases, over a year. This makes you feel like you are living there, not temporarily there for work purposes. Financially, whatever you start on will increase by £3K every year until the end of your apprenticeship, where you will then be placed on £27-30K at most.

Apart from getting a HNC from college and doing a PEO qualification (practical - wiring circuits etc), no. After finishing college, you are required to do an NVQ qualification, however this is entirely self-managed. You will learn very little whilst on site, you are just expected to do the jobs they ask you to do without any complaints, even if they are not related to your own job role.

If you don't enjoy being away from home, don't apply for this job. By the time you come home for the weekend, you are shattered from the week at work and can barely be bothered to do anything else but sit. Due to the nature of the job, you work a lot more than the standard number of hours stated on your contract as the company expects you to put loads of hours in so they get their monies worth with having to pay for accommodation, fuel and food/drink expenses.

The first year is pretty well structured, as this is organised by the college. However, when you leave college, there is no organisation at all. This is due to the size of the company, as nobody is really given the responsibility of looking after the apprentices, therefore you are left not knowing if you are coming or going half of the time. I would rate the organisation/structure of the college an 8/10, but the company itself a 1/10.

You will have a review scheduled every 6 weeks where you will catch up with your mentor and discuss any progress or concerns you have. This is really the only opportunity you get to talk to anyone if you have any questions or concerns, so you need to make sure you ask them everything you need to as you won't get the opportunity to again for another 6 weeks. Whilst on site, you are expected to look after yourself and receive pretty much zero support.

In the first year, the college give you all the support you would expect. I cannot fault this, as you have every opportunity to get a good grade on the HNC. However, when it comes to the NVQ, you do not receive much support and have to rely on yourself to manage your time to get it done.

Gaining an NVQ is a good thing to add to your CV, but for the job itself it helps very little. As an apprentice, you will carry out tasks on site which do not require any knowledge, just a bit of common sense or asking someone who you are working with is all you need.

80% of the staff on site are contractors, therefore if you want to get involved in any activities, you need to arrange these externally as the company do not organise anything. This is different for the people working in the office, as the company organises Christmas parties etc for them.

No

The job is too draining for the average person. If you are willing to dedicate your life to work, then this job may be for you. However, it is almost impossible to the simplest things in life with this job as you are away from home too much and even when you are home, you are too tired. Your time becomes very precious as the weekends seem very short, whilst the working week seems to last a year.

If you are applying for a role based in the office or factory, it is just your standard job. Do not expect anything special. However, if you are applying for a field based role, expect to be placed in random remote places across the UK (especially in the Scottish mountains) for months at a time, with only 2 days a week to see your family/friends. The financial benefits do not outweigh the commitments you have to make in my view - but ultimately, it is your choice!