Engineering Higher Apprentice Review

When starting the apprenticeship on a day-to-day basis I was training full time, after the first 4 month I started doing placements around the companies different engineering departments. My job now consists of conducting electrical surveys such as checking previous installations and reviewing and creating technical drawings along with associated reports and quality assurance documentation.

I am constantly learning new skills, there are lots of opportunities to learn new things via either talking to SQEP, completing company training courses or college academic education. Important skills will be picked up while working such as understanding of engineering systems and reading technical drawings along with other standard business practices.

I really enjoy my programme, everyone I work with is friendly and if there is anything I am unsure about and don't understand people are always happy to explain in more detail. The content of the work is interesting and engaging balancing work and college can be hard but there is a lot of support to help you achieve you academic and professional goals.

There is a day release to college once a week to achieve a HNC, there is also 12 weekly reviews of your progress within your placements so that you get regular feedback and know what to improve on. For the first 4 months you are training full time to help you get orientated and understand the engineering basics.

All staff that I have interacted with have been very supportive, if you have any questions or issues people are always happy to help you or re-direct you to someone who is able to help you. There is lots of wellbeing support within the company and an apprentice forum where any potential issues can be raised.

When working towards your qualification the training provider was supportive, if there were any issues communications were open between the company and the college in order to solve the issue. For example if more time was needed it could be arranged for an additional day or afternoon session to be provided to help people finish their work.

The qualification I got from this apprentice was a HNC in general engineering accredited by Portsmouth university. I believe that this was very useful since while you will probably work with one system in engineering all systems interact so having a general knowledge is very useful especially when understanding complex system. Further education is available once you finish your apprenticeship but that is dependent on your manager and the training budget.

Yes there are 9 early career sports clubs where you can meet new people they are as follows; Rock Climbing, Sailing, Football, Tennis, Surfing, Netball, Karting, Badminton and squash. There are also other events such as departmental Christmas parties and an Early Careers Ball along with other events which may vary between departments.

Yes

I would recommend BAE Systems to a friends due to the large amount of opportunities and variety of engineering work that can be experienced through the company, this is especially good if you are new to the industry trying to work out what type of engineering you personally find interesting.

It is useful to have engineering experience from work experience or other soft skills you can draw upon to apply to an engineering setting such as team work or organisational skills for example. Speak with your college and ask for help such as practice or example interviews and having them help you with your CV.