Higher Apprentice Review

I work at Siemens in Poole. The apprenticeship framework that I am on involves rotational placements around the four main parts of the business in Poole. They are Manufacturing (Factory), Field Services (On street) and Engineering. Obviously these placements vary hugely on the type of tasks that you would be doing as an apprentice. I have found myself doing anything from; Helping to install and maintain equipment on street to working on SAP buying parts for the company in a purchasing placement.

I have been developing new skills in every different department placement, While working on in the Field and in the Factory I have been working on my health and safety knowledge and ensuring that I am working as safely and as efficiently as possible while maintaining a LEAN approach to all my tasks.

There have been placements that I have enjoyed and some that I haven't but it has given me a good all round approach and a fantastic overview of the many different jobs that the business has to offer. Working at Siemens there is also the opportunity to get involved in many actives that happen across the Poole site ad people can do in their lunch break, such as (Uni-cycling club, table tennis, Football, Cake Club and Coffee roulette.)

The Apprenticeship has been well structured and the rotation planning has been particularly difficult to plan as some areas of the business would struggle to look after more than one apprentice at the same time. There has been fairly good support from my employer as well. Offering to provide extra time to complete assignments in work time as well.

There has been a good level of support from my employer as they have offered additional time to help complete assignments and also they have been great at ensuring my work place is as comfortable as possible and that I have the PPE and correct equipment that needed for the task.

The college has been OK with its support and has offered extra maths support in the evenings if needed. I am also able to email tutors and ask for help with course work if needed. My main complaint is with the admin side. Multiple times I was emailed and phoned by different people asking for payment "or else I would not be able to continue with my course" For some reason the college thought that i was paying for my course and so kept chasing me for payment even though I told each person that phoned and emailed to get into contact with my line manager I gave them his details and then a few weeks later they would chase me again. It got to the point where I was unable to log into the college computers because they assumed that I was deliberately choosing not to pay.

I have been told by a few people at Siemens that people hoping to get into my line of work need to have at least a HNC if not a degree. So my qualification at college will be pretty important. I'm not sure how important some of the lessons at college are for anything other than the qualification. For example the business unit at college I have not used any of the information in my job role.

Yes in fact one of the many reasons that I love working for Siemens is how well they look after their staff. As I mentioned above there are lots of clubs; Cake club, Football, Uni-cycling, running groups, table tennis, Pool and snooker sessions and there is also the option to take a longer lunch to accommodate for these activities.

Yes

Working at Siemens is a fantastic opportunity to get involved in really making a difference to the lives of others as a Siemens employee you'll be working in the back ground to keep the country running smoothly and each day at work is so rewarding with actives to partake in and friendly colleges to help the time fly.

Be yourself and be honest, one of the most important things as a Siemens apprentice is to be honest about what you don't know and to be an enthusiastic learner. Missing knowledge can be filled by college and work placements but if the correct or work ethic attitude is missing that cannot be taught.