Apprentice Jointer Review

As an apprentice jointer I will either go to the training school which is in blocks of around 8 weeks where you stay away working from 7:30 to 3:30 this is where you learn a substantial amount of the knowledge needed to become a Jointer. Then there is college where you learn the theory side of the work you do which is usually is different hours depending on the day the college is split up around your first year of around 3 week blocks. Then there depot work where you will have to find willing jointers to go out with who will put your jointing knowledge into real life situations day is typically 8:00 till 15:00.

I have learnt a range of different skills with the apprenticeship with a range of new hands skills and Jointing specific skills. Hand skills are developed as no matter if you are at training school, college or depot your hand skills will always be used. Some maths and English skills are also developed at the college

To some extent do I enjoy my programme because on one hand I have developed a bond with other colleges and I enjoy the work, however there is a lot of pressure on me as an apprentice as to make sure I do this, this and this and even if I am not able to to some thing expectations are not changed.

To an extent is SSE organised and well structed with my programme as college dates are told much before my college starts however at the start of my apprenticeship I have college work where it gives me no experience then sent to depot where I am sent out on site and do not have a clue what I am looking at. I feel as though i should have been given appropriate training school work so i know what i am doing before i go out on site for the first time.

I receive plenty of support from both my Depot manager and my Learner manager however over the 6 months since I joined my programme I have had 3 different Learner managers and two depot managers and the change of my learner managers made my objectives for learning change making it hard to understand what I should be working towards.

The training provider supplies a good amount of support and always have someone at the college to provide any help needed and are available if not on site over teams. They also provide any help necessary to any part of the learning we are finding hard and caters learning to me.

I feel as though the Basics of jointing are covered in the college course however it also cover a large number of other roles so you end up studying parts of the course which you are never going to come against as a Jointer, so the parts are covered in the course relating to the job is helpful however the vast majority of the learning is unrelated.

When at the College and at the training school the apprentices are given plenty of time to socialise whether that being meeting for dinner of an evening or playing 7 a side football. However most of these are arranged by the apprentices themselves not anything to do with the company.

Yes

I would recommend that a friend joins SSE as it is a good life time job if they put the effort in with plenty of opportunities to progress. However I would make sure they know that its not a hard job and lots of effort is required of the apprentice

Its a good apprenticeship to join and you need to be prepared to stay away from home and Have managers pressuring you constantly to work on evidence and the training for the job to take up a lot of your life and constantly be about collecting evidence of your training