EDAS Aerospace Engineering Apprentice Review

For the first 6 months of the apprenticeship you learn basic engineering skills such as fitting, CAD and electronics at the training school. You then move onto your placements and work within the business, moving around different teams every 5 months doing office based tasks. After 6 different placements you then pick your favourite discipline and spend a further two years there.

In the first 6 months I learnt loads about CAD, fitting techniques, business improvement techniques and also improved on my soldering and electronics skills. Whilst in the business I have then developed my excel skills, learnt how to use different databases and developed my personal skills. It has also been good to learn about networking and its importance.

I enjoy working with new people and moving around the business seeing different sides of engineering. My favourite part was the time spent learning hands on skills at the training centre and wish we did more of this! The work in the offices can be seen as a little dull.

The apprenticeship itself is very well organised and all our placements are pre allocated to give us have a clear structure to our journey through the business. All our education (Degree and diploma work) is clearly laid out for us in an easy to follow time scale. There is also a team in charge of all of this so if any issues arise they can be dealt with.

BAE and the early careers team and so supportive and clearly care about us on an individual level. Any issues we may have are professionally dealt with and there is lots of support available to help us through and challenges we may face. They work hard to solve the issues we have but also encourage us to try and solve them ourselves, developing our own resilience and independence.

Any support we need we get it. There are people available 24/7 on email to answer any queries we have and they provide useful advice. If we are struggling with any aspect they will arrange sit down meetings and talk us through what we have to do. They also provide us with feedback after assignments on how to improve for next time.

The aerospace degree I am doing does not relate to the work I do at all, but that could be due to the nature of the placements I have been allocated. The work I do in office is solely database related and I have had to use no new skills I have learnt as a results of my qualifications yet. I would like the placements to relate more to the topics I am learning about at university. I can however use some of my placement experience to add to my diploma qualification.

There are many events available that provide professional networking and extra engineering growth, for example I am currently involved with two drone projects, both focusing around swarms. This allows us to learn about future technologies and also develop our engineering and inter personal skills by working in a team. I do however wish there were more sporting teams available such as a netball team.

Yes

BAE offers a large range of opportunities for people from all walks of life. The support they provide is excellent and the job also offers many perks, such as a competitive salary, numerous qualifications and on the job experience. They are also interested in growth and are working on areas of the apprenticeship schemes that are not quite there yet.

As with all applications, do not lie! Be honest about the events and teams you have been part of. Include times when you have worked as a team, been a leader or volunteered to help people. They look highly on hobbies such as Scouts and cadets. Also include any work experience you have done. If invited to interview it is important you research the company and can talk about the type of work BAE do, but most importantly, be yourself!