Science Industry Maintenance Technician Apprentice Review

I will be a maintenance engineer when I finish my qualification at Appris, I am currently at my training provider full time until July, completing my level 2 and 3 mechanical engineering Btec. After I complete this I will be in work full time with one day each week dedicated to written work in our apprentice study room. All the other days I will be on plant shadowing and learning from an experienced engineer and completing maintenance tasks and noting down each process and experience.

Yes i have learnt many new skills on this course, i have learnt how to use a lathe, a milling machine, a pillar drill and developed my hand fitting skills in workshop. I have also developed my maintenance skills in the Btec level 2. I have also learnt to model using CAD software, and develop engineering drawings and assemblies.

I am enjoying the programme a lot, I enjoy learning new manual skills, especially learning the maintenance aspect of it. The tutors are very helpful, make sure you are doing you work but do it in a fun manner without making us sit in silence. I enjoy learning about engineering systems and developing my maths and physics skills

Programme is structured well, we had a 3 week induction with our workplace, explaining health and safety systems in place at work, the layout of our apprenticeship (what plants well be on and when) what we'd be doing on each plant and did a tour of our workplace and where we will be working. There was an issue with the original training provider we was originally supposed to be working with, but this issue was dealt with swiftly and we moved to a better provider. The workdays at our training providers are structured well we always know what were doing and where. and our plan at work is already set out so it is ready when we finish and go to to site.

For our 3 week induction it was lead by our managers and outlined all the ways we are able to get support. We have our managers number for whenever we need to contact them and always get a response straight away. Also the HR at the company are great, they have a great procedure where you report your procedure and they keep you up to date on everything that is happening until the issue is resolved. our manager also comes into our training provider every term to see how we are doing and upsate us with any changes occurring on site. She is just very supportive all round and helps us with absolutely any issues we have.

I recieve alot of support from my training provider, each tutor teaches us the information we need to complete each task and assignment. They answer any questions we have. We can get in touch with our tutors over teams and they always respond swiftly and are very helpfull. They are very supportive in general and will always make sure we are completing the work okay.

As I am have not been into my workplace since beginning I cannot yet comment on exactly how that my qualification will effect my role. I can say that i have learnt alot of new skills and knowledge that i think will transfer into my job role. I have learnt about lots of mechanical systems that i will use daily in my role, and learnt maintainence skills that will transfer as that is my job role

My company do plenty of walks for charity, such as they have organised for some employees to complete the kirkwood midnight memory walk, that anyone can sign up to and the company will pay any fees for you. I believe you may also volenteer to be an apprentice ambassidor for the company.

Yes

Syngenta is a great company that treat me very very well. They offer a host of great benefits such as a great pension, bonus, cycle to work scheme, health insurance, dental insurance and retail benefits. Even though it is a very large international company they make you feel as part of the team and made me feel comfortable when first joining. They also offer a very good wage.

When applying to syngenta i would advise that applicants are honest and themselves, and use past experiances when talking about skills they may have. Examples are important to talk about as it proves these skills exist and shows what context they can use them in. For example it would be great to show examples of working in a team as teamwork is important at syngenta. I would also recomend that applicants are confident when speaking to hiring managers.