Building Services Technician Review

I am on a rotation scheme, meaning I go from design, to estimating, then procurement, digital engineering, DfMA, commercial, commissioning and finally I am on site. We are a building services contractor so I have worked on a theatre, a large shopping centre, a small school and now I am doing Olympia Exhibition Hall.

I have learned how to use numerous softwares, which are mainly all industry standard. Also I have learned how to take notes during meetings and make the most out of them. Interacting with people much older than me on a daily basis is completely different from being in the school environment.

I do enjoy my program because it gives me the opportunity to learn whilst earning money and gaining experience. I like the people who I work with and I have made a good group of friends here. The commute is very easy for me as it is in the same town in which I live.

The rotation plan is brilliant and a well organised overall plan however I know a few people who are in my cohort have been put on site straight away and with this way of doing an apprenticeship I don't believe you get to see the whole of your role as an engineer.

I receive a lot of support from Laing O'Rourke however most help that I have had from the company has been through others that are either on the same course as mine or who have already passed out of it. They have helped me with what to bring to lectures, resources, etc.

My uni has a very poor level of teaching. All of my lecturers speak broken english and it can be very difficult to understand. The slides are helpful but most of my learning has had to be my own work, just working around the specification. I know that LSBU is esteemed in Building Services Engineering but I cannot see why!

For me I feel that itis the other way around, and I have learnt a lot more from my every day work and then brought that knowledge with me to uni. This is because I am still learning theory at University, rather than practical skills or knowledge for the workplace.

I have heard that there is a Laing O'Rourke football team however that was just at the beginning, and I am not that interested anyway. Instead we tend to make our own plans to go out and do things after work, so we still get to do things outside of work with our colleagues.

Yes

It is a very enjoyable company to work at. They have lots of interesting projects going on at the moment and it is very fulfilling to be able to work on them. The people who I work with are nice and I actually enjoy coming to work in the mornings.

I would say to definitely go on a work experience placement, as then you know people within the company that you can reference during interviews and you also know the 'feel' of the company. This company's atmosphere is very different from other interviews and companies I've been to, in a good way.