Railway Signalling Design Engineering Apprentice Review

I attend college on Mondays and work in a placement for the rest of the week. Currently my day-to-day activities consist of assisting the engineers by completing any supporting tasks they may have that will help them to complete their individual jobs/projects.

I have gained some competency with Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Outlook.

Overall I would say I'm a bit underwhelmed with the programme, though there are certainly some aspects that I do enjoy. I think there is a definitely a lot of room for improvement.

Though there is some structure in terms of placement plans and college unit progression plans, I do not think that the structure is completely suitable. I believe the apprenticeship should provide more training courses (early on) to equip apprentices with the knowledge to excel in their placements.

I receive the support I need from my sponsor, who is always happy to discuss any issues I might be having. The scheme advisor is also very helpful and I trust them to action any issues I might be experiencing.

The college (City of Westminster) is poorly managed. There were a lot of issues at the start which led to a delay in starting work and when a tutor was absent for four weeks there was no cover set. It took 4 months for me to meet the NVQ provider.

I haven't had to utilise much of the unit knowledge from the BTEC qualification within the workplace so far, though that is not to say that I won't. The learning from the training provider is quite rushed and therefore I don't always feel confident in the knowledge.

There is a very active graduate and apprentice committee who offer a lot of great visits and events to take part in, including networking events with other organisations. There are also colleague organised activities ranging from sports to book clubs. Social activities with placement teams are also quite common.

Yes

I would recommend TfL to a friend because although I have issues with some aspects of the apprenticeship, it's a great organisation to work for with lots of great opportunities and routes of progression. The people working here are generally very friendly and supportive.

Think carefully about what scheme you want to apply for and try to get in touch with employees who can tell you more about the various roles. When preparing for your assessment centre, use the resources provided by TfL and think of examples where you have demonstrated the behaviours and competencies.