Apprentice Manufacturing Engineering Technician Review

My role is to improve efficiency within the business and come up with new and effective processes that will allow the company to manufacture its products at a better cost, whilst still ensuring that the exceptionally high standard of quality that the company has always prided itself in delivering is being met. I am currently a first year apprentice and so most of my time is currently spent in the college workshops and classrooms, learning various skills from handfitting and assembly in the mechanical workshop to electrical installation, maintenance and circuitry in the electrical workshop.

I have learned many new skills throughout the first year of my apprenticeship and I have also had the opportunity to continue to develop pre existing skills such as my confidence, clear and concise communication as well as team working skills. The skills I have learned will no doubt serve me well in my future career.

Overall, I am genuinely enjoying my apprenticeship programme. I am grateful to those who have instilled their knowledge upon me and taught me new skills and knowledge, however, covid-19 and the lockdown we have all experienced caused some significant difficulties and resulted in many of the apprentices having to pick up the slack in their own time as there was no time to catch up on paperwork when we begun to attend the workshops.

The apprenticeship programme that I am currently embarked on is very well organised and despite the constraints and difficulties imposed by covid-19 and the lockdown rules that we have seen, both the organisation and the college have worked well to continually look for ways to ensure that all of our work can be completed in time for the deadline set.

We receive a lot of support from our employer and even have a liason at the college that we can report to if we have any concerns or issues. In addition, our liason is open to assist us in anyway that will help us to continue our studies whilst unhindered by any issues. If the college liason or early careers team is unable to assist for whatever reason then they are more than willing to support us in going down the correct channels.

Whilst working towards my qualifications I have often been told that if I have any issues with any of the work then I can ask for support and the college team have been flexible and even attended over the half term holidays on one occasion so that we could continue to carry on in the workshop. These hours were 'reimbursed' so that we can later take them as holidays in the business.

As a manufacturing engineering technician, it will be vital to my career to understand the fundementals and foundations of various other craft trades so that I am able to understand the current processes that are involved in certain operations. With this knowledge and clear communication I should be able to improve the efficiency of future operations.

I have recently been accepted as part of the Local Apprentice Council for the organisation, the LAC visits other sites and talks to apprentices and more senior staff to learn what's going on at those sites and to keep a good level of communication, networking and support open.

Yes

From my current experience and knowledge of the company, BAE Systems is a globally recognised company as being at the vanguard of what they do. The company offers a lot of opportunities in both a professional and a personal capacity. The company works to an exceedingly high standard and has lots of processes in place to ensure that the staff are well looked after.

For those looking to join the company, my advice would be to research the company and see if your values are the same as the companies. Research what the company does and research some of the senior figures within the company, especially those of which you could one day be working for or even with.