Craft Apprentice Review

Currently, I have been working on the basic competencies and developing my knowledge before going into the workshops. Five of the past six months have been online although this was not the case for everyone.

I have hugely developed my CAD skills. There was seven weeks of CAD training as part of the first year which was well structured and very helpful in learning the CAD programme that the business uses.

I have mostly enjoyed it so far. It would have been nicer to be on site more to get to know people and to get into the workshops sooner but the order of the course so far has made perfect sense.

It has been well organised into different units each with enough time to complete the necessary work. We haven't been given access to the complete timetable but have been shown the upcoming sections at the end of each unit.

There appears to be a great deal of support in all aspects of working for BAE Systems, although I haven't needed to use any yet. For the most part our line managers have been approachable and helpful when needed and have taken our comments into consideration.

This is more dependent on the instructor. Some worked quickly through the unit to gave us time to complete the BTEC assignment at work, while others have drawn the content out to fill the time and insisted we do the BTEC at home.

The training has been good and I can roughly see where it will fit into my day-to-day job but I think this will only really become evident when I get into the workshops.

As far as I know there are a few, although I haven't heard much about them. This is likely because I'm still very new to the company and haven't had much chance to talk to people who have been there longer

Yes

The work seems really interesting and the company has an excellent worldwide reputation. there appear to be lots of opportunities within the company and the pay, pension scheme and other incentives are very good.

Get a basic understanding of engineering processes and the aerospace industry, its not a requirement for application but will make you stand out. Also, be enthusiastic about the job and work you could be doing