Apprentice Engineer Review

My role within Openreach is Service Delivery (SD). I am an engineer providing Fibre to the Premises (FTTP). It is my responsibility to work on the network between the distribution point (DP) and the customers’ premises. There are two ways to provide this connection; underground (UG) by lifting designated boxes to access the UG network, safely using barriers and directional signs to protect the public from the open hole, and overhead (OH) at which point I will climb a pole completing the required safety checks beforehand where I locate the (CBT). For the UG network, I use a rodding system (COBRA) from the customers lead in (CLI) at their property to the designated box where I’ve located the CBT. I draw the UG Roc cable through the network of ducts from the CBT to each premises via this network. With regards to OH, after climbing the pole I will complete either; a full provide - connecting a new OH cable to the network, a renewal – replacing an old cable with a new one, or a retrieval - when I will remove a cable from the network. I will connect this network to the property via the CBT. Once connected to the CBT, I strip cable to access the fibre and attach a Grey box to the property known as the customer service point (CSP) this is where the two fibre cables connect to secure the connection from the property to the network. Inside the property I will install an ONT by drilling out a hole from inside the customers’ premises, attaching a fibre cable to the ONT and neatly run it out of the drilled hole to the CSP outside. I will connect the customers’ router to the ONT and fill the hole made by the drill. At the CSP I will use my splicer to connect the two fibre cables together to create the network to the premises. It is also my responsibility to maintain the network, to fault find and repair the network if and when required.

I have learnt many new skills which help me in my day to day duties and tasks. The company have put on civil avoidance sessions, copper session which I have attended and plan to put on other sessions to help the new recruits further with sessions such as multi dwelling units (MDU), A55 form filling and Geohub. The role has also developed my existing skills of problem solving.

So far I am very much enjoying my time on the programme. They have offered a lot of opportunities to learn and develop new skills. They provide help and advice throughpout making my job easier during this learning phase and provide a network of senior engineers who I can contact for help and advice when needed.

I believe there can be improvements made, and by the looks of how things have developed and the information I am receiving via team calls these improvments are being put in to place which will both benefit myself, other new recruits and primarily the business as they continue to try to meet their targets

So far I have not had any issues with support. Any questions I have had or information I've needed has always been given to me. The team is close knit and many of the engineers will help each other when necessary. There is a new recruit engineer available to me whenever I need advice or support and the patch leads are only a call away again for help and advice when I need it.

My training provider has an open dialog with us. We have a teams room which is always open for when we need answers or questions to any of the work we are doing towards our SVQs. We have personal sessions with them every 3 weeks when we have a day dedicated to the completion of our qualifications.

At the moment I am at the beginning of my apprenticeship and a lot of the work we are doing appears to be covering the basics about information and security, both of yourself and the customers you work with, ie keeping their details secure. It has not really effected my current day to day role.

At the moment there is nothing we do on an extra-curricular basis due to the on-going coronavirus pandemic. And as I started during the pandemic, I have no prior knowledge of any company led activities, however once things start to go back to a normal way of life I would be interested in any extra-curricular activities or events

Yes

As I've mentioned previously, there is a strong support network provided to new recruits, the communication within the company, I can only speak for my team, is very good as the manager keeps us up to date with the on-goings with two calls per week and they offer opportunities to attend workshop sessions to teach and help you with the day to day role.

To be patient, It took myself almost a year from when I applied to when being employed and speaking to other new recruits they have shared similar experiences. Just as I have, those I spoken to have enjoyed their experience within the company so far and are enjoying the role as I am.