Machinist Apprentice Review

I work with the CNC machines in the airbus factory. These machines create the top and bottom skins of the aeroplane wings. Depending on where the machine is up to in the cycle will depend on my day to day tasks. I could be prepping the machine bed and getting it ready to load a billet, controlling the machine or getting ready to unload the panel.

When I started my apprenticeship I had experience with bench hand skills and forming metal however I had never used a manual or computer controlled milling machine. Throughout my apprenticeship I have learnt how to use a manual miller and lathe and also how to programme and control a cnc lather and miller as well as developing my hand skills with bench work assignments.

I enjoy the programme much more as the time goes on. In my first year it was 100% college based and I felt I had completed all of the work with a fair bit of time left over before we were allowed into the factory so started to feel a bit bored. After the first year, we then have day release to college so 3 days in the factory, 1 day in college and 3 days off. The more time I spend in the factory the more my confidence increases and the more responsibilities I am given.

Unfortunately, communication is a poor point for the apprenticeship. Especially if you are in a small department - we often get forgotten about. As I was on a different apprenticeship to the majority of the year (around 98%) the managers were not aware of the different elements to my qualification or that we were in a different college.

Airbus is a terrific company, even throughout the pandemic. They have managed to allow all of the apprentices to continue. The apprentices that were close on finishing their time had an extra year added onto their programme along with a pay rise and the chance to achieve their hnc in a bid to save their job. The intake after them have had an extra 4months added which is the amount of time we were furloughed for. Going forward everyone else should be completing their apprenticeship as normal.

The college is extremely helpful in helping us gain our qualifications and airbus allow us one day a week to attend the college. Whereas other colleagues who are on my course from other company's have to either book the day off as holiday or come straight to college after completing a 12hr night shift!

In college I have learnt the meaning if the different codes in programming the CNC machines. This enables me to operate the machine at work confidently and create mini programmes to assist the maintenance team as and when needed. (safe start then move the machine up the bed, open the tool changer doors and complete a tool change for example).

There were I believe however due to the global pandemic these have all been stopped. Hopefully they will resume in the summer. There is an on site gym and a sports and social club. Some of the networking events have still been able to happen these have just been via video as opposed to in person.

Yes

There is a strong foundation and they do look after you. Throughout the pandemic although they have had to reduce the head count there were no compulsory redundancies made and when the company used the government furlough scheme they were able to increase the 80% and also keep paying anybody who was on shifts their shift allowance. There are always options to develop your cv, and enable you to progress through the business.

Be yourself, have an interest in engineering and create a portfolio if possible of an engineering task. I didn't have the opportunity to do engineering at school and as I had finished my Alevels a fair few years prior to applying to airbus, my qualifications felt outdated, however I invested in an old motorbike that needed restoring, took pictures along the way and documented the restoration project.