Manufacturing Apprentice Review

my role involves shadowing the process technicians and learning the various operational activities that take place such as distillations, vessel to vessel transfers, addition reactions, crystallisations, filtrations and offloads. Once deemed competent and my training stage record is signed off for an activity I can carry this out with no supervision. On site we also learn about the various safety and quality standards as well as the GSK values and expectations.

I have learned new skills such as recognising potential on site safety and quality issues and have developed existing skills such as working individually as well as with a team to keep the process to schedule. I have also developed on communicating effectively with others and have learned specific on site skills to ensure the batch I am working with is maintained and is offloaded in it's optimum form.

I enjoy my apprenticeship as I am a hands on learner and get to thrive on this every day doing physical processing activities. The course work we do in our apprenticeship involves writing personal statements and gathering relevant evidence which makes the writing part a lot more easier as it is all things Ihave done on plant.

The apprenticeship is well structured as I have got to work in different buildings varying between fully manual plant where I have to carry out all activities myself, and automated plant where the processing is operated through a program called DeltaV that you control via a computer. I have also got to work briefly in other departments on site to see how they link between my department.

I receive a lot of support from my employer as whenever I have been struggling with my college work, specifically HNC, there was always someone available to help and they are always happy to also. When undertaking new processing activities I am always supervised and encouraged or given constructive feedback in how to do it next time so I can begin to do the activity by myself.

My training provider gave me lots of support when I was struggling at one point with my HNC in applied sciences in which I could sit and go through any queries with one of the lecturers and regarding the SVQ my training provider was always happy to phone or Skype me with any issues I was having understanding the criteria.

My SVQ helps me perform to my best as it is relevant to all the activities I perform on site, however my HNC is not relevant to anything I do on site which makes it harder to study for however I am happy to have progressed with it and potentially gain an extra qualification.

Orange days are a big thing at GSK where one day a year yourself and a group of others volunteer to do work in the community such as painting, a beach clean, gardening or small building. There is also a lunch time quiz on site as well as the apprentice Christmas carol singing show every year. There are more activities such as 5 a side football which I myself don't take part in.

Yes

They are a great employer that not only look after the apprentices by including them in the pension, shares and bonus schemes, but will also put you through the SVQ and HNC and always be there as a helping hand if you ever have any issues. The job you are learning isn't boring as there is always stuff to be doing.

Never try and make yourself out to be something you aren't as you will be hired for the person you are and the skills and personal qualities you already possess. Show that you are interested and want to expand on the little knowledge you have and show that you are open to learning about safety, quality and how to keep the process running smoothly.