Manufacturing Apprentice Review

My role is as an apprentice manufacturing technician at the GSK Ulverston pharmaceutical plant. My day-to-day role includes undertaking manufacturing tasks on plant and shadowing trained process technicians in order to learn from them and work towards achieving competency in the various aspects of manufacturing. My daily interactions are with PTs and LPTs.

In my role I have developed an appreciation and understanding of the processes involved in the manufacture of pharmaceutical products. I have experience in manufacturing chemical intermediates, sterile products, oral products and in solvent recovery. I have developed my knowledge of process safety, Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and compliance/regulations.

I enjoy the program a lot as I feel I have gained valuable experience and have good relationships with my coworkers. I have developed my own confidence and have gained a good appreciation of the workings of a pharmaceutical plant and its operation. I have also developed my ability to express myself to groups.

My programme is well structured and the apprentices are well supported by our manager. There a lot of support structures in place for us if we need help/guidance. On our programme we complete rotations around different manufacturing buildings to gain a wide knowledge of manufacturing operations and how they affect the end user.

I receive a lot of support from GSK if I need it as well as from the apprentice/early talent programme in general. There are good procedures and structures in place to support us and we are able to freely voice any opinions/concerns that we may have concerning our development.

My training provider provides a good amount of support regarding qualifications, I feel that the quality of the training has been good but there is always room for improvement. Sometimes some of the content of our course was not relevant/related to our job role and I struggled to understand why it was relevant.

I feel that some of the aspects of my qualification have allowed me to perform better in my job role (process operations, manufacturing) but some aspects did not feel relevant to my job role (hand fitting, electrical work etc). Despite this I feel that I have received a good level of training.

There are a lot of extra-curricular activities to be involved in at work such as Orange Days where we volunteer in the local community doing charitable activities. We also are able to get involved in STEM events for students to get them interested in working in a STEM field in the future.

Yes

I feel that at GSK the employees receive a good amount of support. I have gained good experience working for GSK and a very high standard of on-the-job training from experienced manufacturing operators. I have gained a good set of transferrable skills which will stand me in good stead in any future job roles.

If you align to the GSK values and expectations of Transparency, Respect, Integrity and Patient Focus and try to live by these values in your work life you will succeed in applying to GSK for an apprenticeship. The values form the foundation onto which all other development items are built.