Undergraduate Engineer Review

I work 3 days a week and have lectures and labs on the other 2 days. I will do 4 different rotations in different teams over the first 2 years. I have just finished my software rotation. I took part in daily stand ups and also contributed to the code in a new dyson product. I have lectures from 9.00-13.00 every wednesday and thursday and then a lab most weeks in one of the afternoons.

I have learned how to work in an agile way with a team of very experienced engineers. I had to speak in daily stand ups with the team to report on what i had been working on. My confidence has definitely increased throughout my software rotation. I have also been learning the programming language C, which i had never used before and have found really interesting.

The university side of the apprenticeship is very intense as you are also working 3 days a week along side the degree but i have really enjoyed learning new content and working in an engineering team that are working on live projects. Malmesbury is quite quiet but there is still plenty to do and dyson runs free buses to bristol every other friday evening and also organise heavily subsidised trips on the weekends including axe throwing, ice skating and water park trips.

This is the first year that dyson have had its own degree award powers and is running its own degree that they have written and designed. There have definitely been some teething problems but most of them are sorted about reasonably quickly when brought up to the lecturers and staff. But there is sometimes a slight lack of communication within the department.

For the first 2 years, you do 4 6 month rotations in each of the following: mechanical, electrical and software engineering as well as new product innovation. I was in software for my first one and my team where all very nice and all more than happy to help when i needed it. We also have someone who is there to specifically help up make sure we are getting the most out of our apprenticeship and ticking off our KSBs (the points we need to tick off to get awarded the apprenticeship at the end of the 4 years)

The year is split up into 2 semesters. You do 2 modules in each semester and then have maths and programming spread out over the year. Some lecturers are definitely better than other but all are willing to answer any additional questions that you might have. The people in charge of extenuating circumstances are all great and are always around if you need any help or need additional software that might help you. (eg: spell checks and recording lectures)

Depending on the team you are working in will affect how much of the content you learn in lectures can be directly applied in work as we are taught python in lectures but the software teams use lots of different programming languages. But there are definitely links between the lectures and work place.

There are speaker series sessions that occur most weeks where someone from the company will talk to us about their role and what they do. We also have a football team as well as sessions for people to have a go at volleyball and basketball. There are also weekend activities (as mentioned above) which are always great fun to go on which are organised by the UEC (Undergraduate Experience Committee). There has also been a winter formal recently which was really good and there will be another one in the summer.

Yes

You get to do a degree whilst gaining experience and earning a salary whilst also living in student accommodation for the first year which most apprenticeships do not offer. I have learnt so many new skills in both the work place, lecture rooms and also outside of work hours and am really enjoying my time here. The year group might be quite small (about 40) but we do see and communicate with the older years a lot.

When applying Dyson ask for a CV and personal statement. Do not use the same one that you have used for UCAS as that will not be showing why you want to go to Dyson, you can take bits out of it but don't use the entire thing. For the telephone interview, make sure you have researched what Dyson do as a company and their history and you will be fine. I was applying during lockdown so my assessment day was changed to an online technical interview but as long as you are on top of your a-level work you will be fine. I strongly recommend taking further maths a-level as it means you will have done almost all of year 1 maths before even getting here.