Aerospace Engineer Review

My role is to support the business area where I am placed, working alongside professional engineers and experts. Tasks can be wide-ranging, relating to one or multiple engine programmes, and can include data interpretation, problem solving of issues, planning future work packages or ensuring products meet certification standards. I contact multiple people on a daily basis; within my team, area, business and the wider company, as well as external suppliers, contractors and customers. My responsibilities include ensuring any issues are flagged and recorded in the appropriate management system, as well as meeting deadlines for customers, both internally and externally, ensuring the projects flow smoothly.

I've learned many new skills during my apprenticeship, as well as studying towards a BEng (Hons) degree. I study one day a week at university to work towards a level 6 degree, whilst also working towards a Level 4 NVQ and having completed a Level 2 foundation course. Within the company, I've undertaken many training courses both online and in a classroom environment, including two Outward Bound training weeks. The skills taught at work are highly valuable in my professional development, and cannot be learnt solely in a classroom or outside of the workplace.

The programme has allowed me to study for a degree whilst earning and learning in an engineering role. The hand skills learnt in the development workshops have given me a solid understanding of engineering processes, whilst creating products and having fun. There are so many likeminded people on the programme and in the company to work with and socialise with outside of work, which surprised me as I thought I would struggle to interact. Despite challenging workloads, the team around me and the results we achieve make the work enjoyable.

From day 1 there was a clear plan for my programme. The first year was spent training both practically in the workshop and theoretically, to give me a solid understanding of basic engineering. The following 3 years are spent on business placements, dealing with real-world engineering problems and tasks in teams across the company. I have a clear plan to finish my course, and despite altered timescales because of the pandemic, I know what I must do to finish on time.

The support available has been constant throughout, with a mentor assigned to each apprentice for the duration of their course, with (bi-)weekly meetings. Our placement manager changes with every placement, but we communicate and they know what is expected of you, and what you expect of them during a placement. Support has been available during the pandemic and during furlough, to ensure we remained well and connected even when we were not in work. If we have any issues, there are multiple people we can raise these with and get swift responses, be they work-related or personal.

There are multiple channels of support available for our training provider, including personal mentors and support groups/representatives to communicate issues and information about our course. Our Personal Academic Tutor is a lecturer and is expert in the field in which we are studying, so any course-related questions can be answered directly by a lecturer. During term-time, our group feedback any issues, however small, to the representatives from the group who feed back to the university in regular meetings. these are always actioned in a timely manner and are resolved or escalated as appropriate.

The qualification and my role at work go hand in hand, and I regularly find myself using skills taught at university in my work role. This can include mathematics, stress calculations, component analysis using software or using test data. This real-world application reinforces the theory we learn and shows it will prove valuable for our future role. The theory taught at university gives a deeper understanding of why the task at work may produce issues or require analysis, whilst at work we can then understand why and apply the processes we've learnt.

As part of our course we become STEM Ambassadors so can attend a variety of events organised outside of work, to promote the industry and encourage future engineers. We also carry out community projects and school projects as part of our course. Away from work, the site leisure centre hosts a range of sports clubs and social events, with others taking place in the city/wider area. Team social events also occur regularly where you can get to know your team away from a work environment.

Yes

The quality of training and work I am able to do on my course has been excellent and I feel I can take on a role I the company easily upon completion of the course. Similarly, the skills I've learned are easily transferrable to other industries. The value of gaining a Rolls-Royce apprenticeship and a degree will not be lost throughout my career, as Rolls-Royce are recognised for their quality products and the training I have received has been superb.

Make sure you stand out and show you really want to be part of this course, including any skills you can't show in a CV in your application. Once you're invited to undertake assessments, make sure you focus and complete them to the best of your ability. Your interview is the chance to prove, face to face, that you can be part of this scheme and want to become an engineer. Exam grades and CV references aren't everything!