Controls Engineering Apprentice Review

At the moment I am going around the business to different departments to get to know the different areas and job roles available. The placements are usually around 3 months. I am shadowing current employees while also attending university every monday.

Definitely, I have learnt skills I never thought I would. This includes, welding, PLC's, electrical work, programming, hand fitting, 3D printing, laser robot control, conveyor systems and much more. along side these skills I also feel like I was able to mature quickly as a person because this sort of environment encourages that.

I enjoy my day to day life a lot. I wish I could stay an apprentice forever. We are treated so well and we receive a lot of support. The variation of things we get to be involved with also helps with deciding where we want to end up at the end of our apprenticeship.

Our managers try their best to constantly improve the programme. Over my apprenticeship alone i have witnessed plenty of improvements made. One of our complaints was having to travel to Birmingham for university, so they have managed to change it for the upcoming apprentices so that their university is all in house. We also get to go to other plants for 3 months.

The support we receive is mainly why I enjoy this apprenticeship so much. Any issues I've had, I've felt supported. Any additional funding or compensation needed (eg. travel), we get. And sometimes our managers make the hard decisions for us because they know what's best for our development.

Also a lot, we have occasionally felt that our lecturers were not doing enough or we felt like we have been behind. In those cases we have always received plenty of help form our employer.

We have a whole year dedicated to our specific job role at the end of our apprenticeship and we also get a taster placement with our team beforehand in the 3rd year . The degree we study covers subjects such as PLC's which helps with the controls role. however there are many topics which are unrelated.

When you join the apprenticeship everyone gets sent to a team building resort for a couple of days where we get to make friends with apprentices from other plants. We get to go on trips to Swindon, Rolls Royce and Hams Hall. We have a MINI socials groupchat where two apprentices organise things for us to do outside of work. This includes weekends away to Scotland, nights out in other cities, go karting, bowling , escape rooms and much more. I've been invited to a couple of professional networking events with my team which were cool. The opportunities increase when you put effort in with your team.

Yes

I am really happy doing the apprenticeship because i feel i have a good work life balance which many other employers cant offer.

Make sure you show genuine interest in the business in your interview. And make as many friends as you can.