Leather Covering Apprentice Review

My role as an apprentice at Rolls Royce motor cars Interior trim center involves spending on average a month in each department to gain a wide range of skills and knowledge that will help me to forge a career for myself after my apprenticeship. Day to day my day includes attending team briefs, shadowing trained associates, working on training parts of leather, and eventually progressing to work on production parts when I feel confident enough.

During my apprenticeship so far I have enormously developed my sewing skill, including my speed and quality and I have learnt how to cover carrier parts of the car with leather. I have also massively developed my confidence and communication skills since starting my apprenticeship and now feel so much more at ease when meeting new people or conversing with my superiors.

My apprenticeship program took a while to get used to as it was a very different style of work to what I had done previously and when I began I was quite shy and not very confident so it was quite difficult for me to enjoy and feel comfortable at work, however after meeting more and more people and settling in at my workplace I am beginning to enjoy it more.

My program is quite well structured in theory however a lot of the time things don't go to plan or things change quite suddenly, but if this happens we are usually notified quite promptly. The development plan we have is also very flexible and allows the apprentices to have some say in their path of work which is nice.

I receive a lot of support from my employer and they are always checking to see if there is anything else they could be doing to take the experience even further or checking to see if we are struggling or need any kind of assistance. If there ever is a problem my employer is always eager to find solutions to help and they are generally very interested in our work and development.

My tutors at Chichester college are very keen for me to develop a range of skills and help me work towards completing my qualifications by making sure all practical work is completed to a high standard. When it comes to written work they are often unclear when explaining what is needed to complete the apprenticeship and appear unsure themselves. This is quite stressful and leaves us apprentices to try to figure it out ourselves and often get it wrong.

I don't feel as though the training I receive at college has any correlation to my role at work. While there is sewing at college it is very different to the sewing at work because at college the course is centered around furniture upholstery rather than automotive upholstery like at my work, for example at college we are currently creating cushions and blinds whereas as work we sew car seats and dashboards. While the skills i learn at college are valuable and of a high quality and allow me to plan and think for myself they seem more suited to help me in a different role in the future rather than my current role. Most of the theory we learn is also centered around the furniture industry so is also not of much help

Due to the coronavirus pandemic there have been no extra curricular activities that i have been made aware of however I hope that some become available to apprentices once restrictions end. I did receive an email that some people were arranging a group zoom call to meet other employees in different departments but i was not able to attend.

Yes

It is an excellent way to gain confidence while learning very transferable skills that can help you both in and out of the workplace. It is a very supportive workplace and the majority of employees and superiors and very friendly, accommodating and encouraging and you feel part of a family very soon after joining. There is also an abundance of development opportunities if you want to develop your career and the team will try to help you succeed at whatever you want to do.

To others applying as an apprentice at BMW group i would say that it is not as glamourous as it sounds and while there are some brilliant placements and opportunities there are also a lot of boring, tedious and repetitive jobs that you will have to learn, however it is a very nice work environment with very nice people and a great way to start your career no matter what you are interested in achieving so it is worth getting through the boring times no matter how far way the end seems, it will be worth it.