Engineering Technician Review

I am currently rotating in 3 month placements around the business, so 4 times a year what I'm up to on a day to day basis changes. In some placements I am working on validating parts of a car (meaning test driving and changing parts), and in others I can be using a 3D printer and laser cutter to help the production processes in the plant.

I have learnt a lot of new skills. The first year was all done in a workshop training room with a lot of equipment we were trained on. I learned all practical, hands on skills an engineer may need. In my classroom learning (one day a week) at college I have learned new theoretical skills I can use in my work. Throughout my placement, I'm also learning new soft skills, like communication, how to function effectively as a team and project management.

I thoroughly enjoy my programme and my time at work, I'm always excited to come in. I am learning so much every day and contributing to projects that I can see are making a difference to the company I work for. It's very fulfilling which makes me always want to come back. I also really enjoy how all my training is related to a real life example; it makes all my training feel very relevant for the industry.

The program is quite well structured, which is quite a challenge considering how quickly this industry can change. The main bulk of organizing for my programme at the moment comes from organizing placements around the business. There is a plan of where I will be that's written and discussed a long time in advance. This plan can change, but is always reviewed based on how busy each department is and on whether they'll have any work for me to do.

A lot of people on site were once apprentices, meaning they all know what it's like to do placements around the business. Everyone who I'm working for are incredibly supportive as they have grown up with the apprentice experience themselves. We are assigned a manger and mentor for each placement and they will guide the apprentices through the placement. The apprentice management team are also very helpful; they have regular meetings to check the progress of everyone and always have their door open if someone has a problem.

The teaching quality isn't great at the college, and the assignments are hard to understand. We're left to figure out what they're asking quite a lot of the time, and the teachers often can't understand what the assignments (they've written) are saying themselves. Luckily the course isn't challenging enough to require too much help; a lot of the content can be found properly explained online. Not all teachers are the same, but none of them are satisfactory. Some just read words off a sheet without explaining anything, other's refuse to repeat content if it's not understood and others don't explain anything at all.

A good lot of the content from the university course I already have learned from my placements. Other content I can't see being relevant and some content is new to me in college and will be applicable in my work. The degree that I am doing alongside my placements is the most relevant degree for my job, but most of what I need to know for the job is learned through my placements.

There are plenty of extra-curricular project teams that apprentices can join. There are plenty of projects to get involved in which helps networking around the country, which is an opportunity I wouldn't be able to get any other way. There are also other activities apprentices can get involved in outside of work; they are generally organized in amongst the apprentices themselves. There is a group of usually about 30 apprentices all in one cohort (all in different departments at one time) that become quite close.

Yes

This is a company build from apprentices, meaning they are respected from day 1. You will learn everything you need for a successful career in this highly respected company. All apprentices are looked after very well and people genuinely care about our wellbeing and success. There is also a large range of jobs in BMW Group, so people can have entire career changes without ever leaving the company. The company has also been known to support these changes. For example, people who are trained as maintenance engineers have changed to quality specialists. You could even change from an engineering role to an accounting role, without every losing the job security. The pay is extremely generous and we have a trade union that gets the best for all of us even in this time of uncertainty for the industry.

Apply if you're passionate: the apprenticeship can teach you all the knowledge you require to be a perfect employee, but it can't teach you to love what you do. I would advise applying if you can see yourself enjoying one of our many apprenticeships (there are multiple to choose from), no matter what you think of your abilities.