Assembly Apprentice Review

I am an assembly associate for Rolls Royce Motor Cars in Chichester and i work in the main plant on the assembly line. I work in a zone within a team on the line building and assembling certain sections of the car and fitting them to the car. This includes fitting the undertrays and support brackets under the car as well as working in the engine bay fitting the electrics and air boxes. When not at the plant working on the line i am studying at Chichester college.

Since working on the assembly line i have learnt some new skills and have learnt more about cars in general. I have learnt how to assemble and fit various items to the cars and have helped me to understand more about how engines and cars work. I have learnt how to use certain tools and the reason for using certain torques and settings. i have learnt how to assemble air boxes, fit water pumps, route electrical connections just to name a few.

I have enjoyed learning new skills and working on the cars as it is a passion of mine and something i've always wanted to understand fully. This programme allows me to learn about the cars as well as gain skills on fitting parts to the cars and seeing them be built. However i have found the last year to drag a bit as we haven't learnt anything new and have sort of been left to our own devices in the plant. We seem to get given all the mundane jobs or asked to cover roles which is way above our pay grade. At college i have enjoyed learning new skills such as bench fitting exercises making new tools and items only using hand tools and am enjoying learning how to use the lathes and mill. All activities which are of interest to me and im getting paid to learn them.

Initially i found that it was difficult to find structure as it wasnt really set out what we were actually going to be doing. There was a lack of communication initially so we couldnt ask anyone what the plan was. The college side of things is structured well as there is a set course to follow so once they had figured out which paper was the most up to date we could set ourselves goals and know what to do. Sometimes in the factory we are used for tasks that dont really help us with the studying side of things. If we get taken off the assembly line to help with other tasks we then cant learn the package which is something that we need to end up writing about. A couple times i have been pulled off to do something else when i should have been getting assessed by my college lecturer. It can get frustrating at times as our one day a week is hard to learn as it is so when we get a week here we think its a good time to really learn but end up doing other things. I have found that not many people really know what we are studying and neither do we. I'm not too sure what ive actually learnt in my 2 years in the plant that will help my future career path. A lot of the stuff we have been taught has no relevance to the plant so seems very disjointed.

I dont really feel we have recieved any support from our employer, it is mostly the college team that have supported us. We dont really have a contact from our employer that we feel we can contact or get support. I've had a little bit of support from my employer but that wasnt even work based. No managers seem to know what we are doing or what work we have to complete.

I have found the college to be very helpful towards my qualifications. I have found that all the lecturers have been able to assist me if i have needed it. With certain classes when we were learning new things i didnt understand at times i was able to ask questions and they would assist me. Even if i have needed help to understand what a question is asking me i know i can email the lecturers and they have been there to help or point me in the right direction to find out the answer for the question or how to answer it. Some of the lecturers have even stayed on late to help us get our work finished on time and i feel they have supported us well.

I feel that most of the things we have learnt in college cant really be applied to my role as we dont use things such as welding or tools such as pillar drills and lathes and the electronics are all pre built that we fit to the car so we dont need to know how they are soldered together or how to carry out the testing. We can apply the general safe handling practices and health and safety into it and know how to safely use equipment but i wouldnt say much can be applied as its an assembly line not a production plant so we dont need to know how the engine works as this is already built when it arrives in the plant. I feel that nothing we have learnt can be used in the workplace so it feels very broken as we only learn new things in college not through my role.

Amongst the teams working on the shifts they may arrange actitivites such a go karting outside of work or team building/socialising. Otherwise i have never seen or heard of social activities or maybe i have never been invited. Lack of communication again perhaps.

No

Well i may recommend them if i worked in one of the BMW plants as i have heard they have learnt lots and can actually implement it in their workplace. We however have not been able to and there has been no real communication from anyone. We are left on our own and no one seems to help.

Check where the job role may lead you because if you find a good job then i'd say Go for it! Its a brilliant company that is known worldwide and it also features many benefits as an employee. You have the option to learn many skills that can be used and implemented into many jobs and once you have gained these skills they will help for many different roles. I'm just not sure BMW group works well in Rolls Royce as it feels very much us and them. But dont knock it until youve tried it.