Engineering Technician Review

My role is to spend time within all the technical departments around the plant and understand how they assist production, then I would shadow one of the members of staff to understand their role, then I would become part of the team for a few months at a time to gain experience in that department.

All the way from college to work I have been developing a wide variety of skills, ranging from hand fitting and pipe fitting, all the way to controlling robots using programs and PLC’s. Even now when I am completing my Foundation Degree, I am still developing skills that are new and useful to the business.

Every year so far has been interesting and worth while from an experience and enjoyment standpoint. Since the college work is full on and covers a large base it means you are always learning plenty of useful skills on and off site, and you spend enough time in each department to contribute to their projects in a meaningful amount.

For the most part there has been a strong structure that could be followed throughout the whole of the apprenticeship. This includes a full college plan for all my college years so far, as well as a placement plan on site that could be viewed a year in advance to see where you will end up.

If there are any subjects that someone might struggle in then work are more than willing to sort out extra support lessons to ensure that there are no gaps left in your knowledge. They also have a large amount of support staff who work in most fields of the company that they can communicate with to offer support.

When we are studying at college it tends to be left to the college to offer the support we require while studying there, but at both the colleges I have been studying at it is as easy as asking either the lecturer or the tutor for support and they will offer it either on the spot or within the week.

Every skill and qualification I have studied for and achieved so far has given me skills and mindsets that can be applied in all my placements, whether that is problem solving or simply using past experience. When working at higher level qualifications the skills you develop become more specific when looking at certain aspects of my role and help to improve them 10 fold.

There are a couple of events that apprentices can get involved in while working at BMW, one major one is the mountain challenge that features an apprentice section. This allows apprentices across multiple plants to compete with one another in a game similar to a mixture of mountain walking and orienteering.

Yes

I couldn’t recommend the apprenticeship enough to a friend, they offer you such a large amount to skills that can be used and applied anywhere, they offer you a great pay, and they offer all manor of support structures to reduce the stress of completing a lot of work over time.

I would say that it is worth understanding the engineering field, understand what mechanical engineering and car production is all about, and to gain experience in engineering. Another piece of advice is to study an engineering subject at college for a year so you have a base level knowledge at the start of the apprenticeship, making it easier.