Aerosystems Apprenticeship Review

Year 1 is entirely college based, this is carried out at coleg Cambria Deeside and consists of 4.5 days in college. Here you will learn both the necessary hand skills as well as the theory that is behind aerospace engineering/manufacturing. You will be broken down into groups who you will then become good friends with, each group then attends various lectures such as “theory of flight” or “human factors”.

The amount of skills I have learnt throughout the apprenticeship is hard to comprehend, not only have I extensively developed my hand skills such as drilling, riveting and wire locking. I have also developed my own people skills, this is due to the ongoing trips and presentations that you can take part in. The development aspect of the apprenticeship is definitely the most satisfying to look back on.

I have loved the airbus apprenticeship and feel sad that it is almost over, throughout the 4 years I have gained friends for life as well as qualification that allow me to manufacture aircraft. The apprenticeship was full of laughs and lessons and only now I am near the end do I wish it would have went a lot slower.

The program itself is structured brilliantly. The first year is 4.5 days in college entirely. The second year is when you will be exposed to the factory for 3 days and then a college day 1 day a week - this means that for years 2/3 you have fridays off which is a brilliant feeling. The programme is very organised in ensuring everybody meets their targets.

Whether it be professional support such as needing more time to meet targets or personal support such as issues outside of the workplace, the employers are always there to helps. The beauty about the airbus apprenticeship is that each early career manager has a smaller group so they can then offer much more tailored support and give each individual the time they need to resolved the issue.

The academic is located in coleg cambria who are a brilliant college that are there to help all of the time. There were times when the workload became difficult to manage however the main thing in this situation is the communicate with the college and inform them that you are struggling. They will easily help you and ensure that you are no longer worried.

It would be naive to say that you could go onto the factory work without gaining college qualifications. The skills I learnt within coleg Cambria were essential and allowed me to enter the factory with confidence and the knowledge of what to do whether that be skills such as how to drill or simple but effective stuff such as the fire alarm procedure.

Throughout the apprenticeship there is a scheme called Gen-A which allows apprentices to join groups that have various hobbies such as walking hiking playing football or random stuff such as FIFA FIFA tournament. The groups main aim is to welcome individuals into airbus and allow them to merge and network with other individuals. Aside from work the groups you become friends with will always be their on nights out as I said they will become friends for life

Yes

Airbus is a brilliant organisation that allows individuals to develop as much or as little as they please. It is a huge organisation but still feels as though you are not just a number but you are in fact wanted and cared for by the organisation. I have loved my Airbus apprenticeship and I look forwards to a long career here.

Be yourself - airbus want to see your personalities. Also believe in yourself, when I applied for the apprenticeship I really did not think I got in and was devastated, now almost 4 years later I am 8 weeks from completing my apprenticeship and am so glad that I took the leap and applied.