Maintenance Apprentice Review

My job role as a maintenance apprentice in Plant Swindon is to be able to fix and maintain all the machinery within the factory. We complete Preventative Planned Maintenance (PPM's) or reactive maintenance (breakdowns) on a daily basis and complete all the jobs needed throughout the day. Every day is different and can have lots of jobs or only a few jobs at a time.

I have gained multiple new skills such as improving my communication and interactive skills with people, as well as hands on skills such as Forklift training, Scissor lift training, Crane Training and risk assessment training. Getting trained on new machines is exciting as you use these machines daily on jobs and breakdowns.

I find the apprenticeship very enjoyable because there is a lot to learn and lots of machines to learn and train on. Maintenance is a good job role because it is different every day which is exciting and interesting as you never know what jobs or skills you will learn every day.

We are given a structure at the start of the apprenticeship on how the length of our apprenticeship will unfold and what we will be doing in that time frame. We have regular feedback meetings to check the structure and organization of our new placements throughout the years which helps us keep track of everything.

We receive lots of support through both the company and the college while completing the college work. The managment are very helpful and keep track on our progress so if we need help or are falling behind on anything, they provide training or time for us to catch up on work.

The tutors are good in lessons helping us understand the lesson requirements and there are extra lessons at the end of college days to help catch up on lessons that we don't quite understand yet. The lessons are usually quite small so it feels like a 1-on-1 session which is more beneficial and understanding.

Having the qualifications such as the NVQ and the optional HNC in General Engineering helps develop your CV and therefore are more likely to go higher within the business and understand more things during jobs on the shop floor. Learning the basics in college make a good building block to start from when starting in the factory.

There are lots of activities throughout work that apprentices can get involved in such as Charity champion events and apprentice newsletter team. Other activities include the Mountain challenge and the BMW race team but they are currently on hold due to the Covid restrictions. They are all very welcoming to join and everyone is very friendly.

Yes

BMW group provides lots of support and allows you to gain qualifications and skills while getting paid at the same time. You do not have to pay for any student loans or qualifications which means I can save the money I get through the company for my own personal savings such as purchasing my first house.

I would advise to anyone to research the company values, be truthful and be yourself before the interviews. There are practice tests you can do before the 3 initial tests have to be done which really help you get into the mindset of what the tests require and allow you to try similar questions before the real one.