Apprentice Civil Engineer Review

My role involves me working hands on with scheme work whilst also having 1 day per week to do my college studies. It allows me to gain my qualifications whilst also getting hands on experience with the scheme work (with support from my mentor and other members of the team) that I am given.

I have learnt many skills and developed many of my existing skills with this role. I have developed my communication skills as I am required to speak directly to others (members of other teams for any queries in their speciality, project managers etc.) and also my I.T skills as I am required to use a computer every day.

I thoroughly enjoy my programme with Kier as I have been given an opportunity to learn and become a Civil Engineer and develop my skills as an engineer at the same time with the hands on work that I am given. I enjoy it because engineering is something that I have always wanted to do so being given this opportunity I am going to enjoy it as best as I can.

The programme is fairly organised, however the college side of things has been rough due to many factors (such as COVID, falling behind on assignments due to a lack of teaching/support from the college). However, recently hey have been making amends by improving the tutors we have and also giving us more support with our assignments.

I receive a huge amount of support from my manager and others in the team. They have all taught me everything that I know and have helped me with all the questions that I have. They also ensure I am doing well in terms of my college work and also scheme work and try to help in any way they can.

I receive adequate support from my college tutors, however at the beginning we were falling behind due to the lack of support at the start form our tutors. We fell behind with our assignments and are now having to have double sessions and doing multiple assignments at once to catch up which is not ideal.

I feel as though some of the units that we are covering as part of our college assignments aren't relevant to what I am doing on a day-to-day basis as they relate to other areas of engineering rather to civil engineering, which is what I'm doing. However, some of the units do apply and are relevant so they help me to perform better within my role.

I believe there are extra- curricular activities such as ICE events, however at this moment in time I believe there aren't many or any on at all due to COVID. I would like there to be some sort of sports activities (football etc.) but again due to COVID it wouldn't be safe to do so.

Yes

Kier has been excellent to me in the 1.5 years that I have been here. I have been well looked after and have progressed in my learning rapidly. I have also been able to take any courses which I believe to be important to my development in this field of work so it shows that Kier care about the personal development of their workers.

I would advise others applying to Kier to put their all into their work and try their hardest to learn new things as this could be a job for life if you show your value to the company. I would advise them to also be confident with their assessment days and interviews as that can get you far in those.