Higher Level Electrical Review

As an apprentice higher electrical, in the first year of our course we spend full time at college, learning hand skills and building our initial range of skills, while allowing 1 day per week for our technical qualification which is a HNC. In the second year we start work in the dockyard, allowing us to work and perform in different department and get experience of working full time.

With the training provided, the wide range of different tasks and the opportunities given, there is so much room to develop new skills. My mathematical skills and knowledge, computing, use of hand tools, understanding of electrical systems and measuring devices. Not just technical skills, but also interpersonal skills, allowing me to network with different people in and outside of the workplace.

It’s pretty decent, especially as someone who enjoys doing both physical and mental work. Allowing me to build both manual and intellectual skills is perfect in that sense. The range of different things on offer is good and being able to work with different people in different areas and build my work network has been good.

From the start the programme had a structure set out and allowed you and understanding of what you would have to do in order to fulfil the requirements. Set days for our qualifications. Any of the problems that occurred were able to solve by talking to our managers. Now that we know what is required for the EPA it’s very useful in determining what information about the job we need to retain.

We have always been encouraged to keep lines of communication with our managers and people within the company. There are so many people you can speak to, in order to enquire about something or attempt to make changes. Wherever there have been any problems, there has always been people there who we can contact and get some information.

There are always open lines of communication between us and our tutors. We can always send them an email if there are any problems, or we need help with the course. On top of them allowing us access to all materials via google classrooms. Always there to help us understand the course.

There are a lot of different skills learnt from the course that apply both directly and indirectly to the job. The general understanding about electronics that the training has given us, has been very helpful when moving into the workplace. There are also more specific bits of knowledge provided from college that directly feed into the kind of things in the workplace, a recent example would be the teaching about complex waveforms directly applying the some work onboard.

There are different networks within the company for different groups of people, such as the women’s network or the LGBTQ+ network and many more. There are other different ways to network within the workplace. In addition within different sections in the dockyard as you meet other people, you may find they have their own different out of work groups and events for you to get involved in.

Yes

From my own experience I’m pretty happy with where I am. This job has allowed me to do a lot of things that I may not have been able to do in both my personal and professional life. It’s offers a competitive salary for an apprenticeship, as well as the obvious advantage of an apprenticeship allowing you to earn while you learn.

If you are thinking about applying for Babcock approach with enthusiasm for the job. Research about what Babcock as a company do and make sure you can relay that knowledge. Think about and explain why you want that job in particular and how your skills are suitable and why you would be a good fit.