Engineering Technician Review

I spend 3 month long placements in many different areas around the business. For example, quality, logistics and assembly. The role of an apprentice can vary greatly depending on the placement. Some departments like to get apprentices very involved and you doing practical work, others are office based where you attend meetings and get involved in projects.

There is the opportunity to learn new skills everyday within your placements. Even though you are rotating through different placements, they all use similar software so these skills are always improving. Your teamworking and communication skills continuously improve as you network with your colleagues. It would be beneficial for the apprentice training department to give apprentices the opportunity to do internal/external training courses such as German language lessons as I feel that would enhance our apprenticeship experience.

Overall I enjoy my apprenticeship. The majority of people you work with are helpful and encouraging towards apprentices. Attending university one day a week gives a good balance between work and education. Some placements don't seem to be very closely linked with your degree and your areas of interest which can make some placements less enjoyable.

Placements have been well organised. I am given my placement plan for the duration of my apprenticeship and I am told if there are any changes to it. The university side of the apprenticeship lets it down. There is unclear communication between BMet (Training Provider) and BMW. This makes it difficult when we provide feedback to our BMW training advisors as a different message seems to get to BMet and vice versa.

My employer is very supportive. The team in the training school are always willing to listen to any problems you may have. They have been helpful when I have been in placements where I have not been given much work. We have Eng Tech meetings every 3 weeks with the other apprentices on our course and our training manager. These are a great opportunity to feedback and raise any problems we have as a group.

Our university course is currently delivered by Birmingham City University but through BMet in one of their colleges in Birmingham. Our teachers deliver the content that is required for the exams/assignments. They do not go into much detail and simply teach you what you need to know to pass the qualification. Some teachers can be hesitant to provide extra help if you need it which is disappointing. We only receive a percentage grade for our assignments and exams, we have never had any constructive feedback about our assignments. This issue has been raised many times by our training managers to BMet but it has not improved.

The qualification that I am studying is BEng Manufacturing Engineering. Many of the modules that are taught are not relevant to the placements that I have been in. However, as we cover such a large range of modules, they may be useful in the future and give you a good overview of the manufacturing industry.

In the past year a group has been set up between interns and apprentices to organise social events. These have been positive as it had been something that was missing from the apprenticeship in previous years. Departments that you carry out placements in may also have social events that usually involve apprentices. There is also a charity team that apprentices can get involved in organising or taking part in the many events they hold in the year.

Yes

The experience that you can gain from working in a large company such as BMW are invaluable. You get to see many different sides of the business which will be very useful in your future career. The opportunity to get a fully funded degree is great.

If possible, complete some work experience at BMW or in another engineering company. This will give you a better idea about what it is like to work in this industry. I'd recommend researching the BMW group and its core values and seeing how you can relate those to yourself as a potential employee.