Technical Apprentice Review

I begin my day at 7am, where I go into whichever placement I am in at the time. (As at Leonardo, we rotate placements around the business) Currently, I am in our special manufacturing unit where I perform training task such as cable making and building circuit boards. I undertake a lot of STEM activities as well, this usually takes up half a day, once a week to complete the workload for the STEM. Throughout all this, I interact with multiple people internally and a couple externally.

I attended Sixth form before attending my apprenticeship and I have still been able to learn new skills. These mainly come from college where we spent the first year. These include, designing and building wiring diagrams, such as wiring up a plug. Our company uses Coursera as their main training provider for external training. I have completed multiple courses such as mechanical design, thermodynamics and multiple Quality assurance courses. In my day to day life at Leonardo, I have learnt how to work in a business and work with other people effectively.

When it comes to working in Leonardo, I enjoy it very much. This is mainly because I am able to work in a great team and the company culture is relaxed which makes for a great work environment. However, College is not enjoyable as PROCAT, our college we attend, is not the best. We have had problems since we started there and are still having problems. As i have been to a sixth form, I know what a good college is and PROCAT is not that.

Leonardo is structured very well. the placements are though through and all management is aware of apprentices entering their department. However, the structure at PROCAT (college) is horrible. If Leonardo itself wasn't good, then I would have definitely left the apprenticeship, because of college. There is no structure in their teaching and even though some teachers are good at their job, some might as well not even be teachers as they do not or cannot teach a class.

Leonardo have been extremely helpful with the issues regarding college along with any support that we require at work. We have an apprentice team that help us whenever we need it. I've needed help or needed to ask questions multiple times throughout my placement and the apprentice team has been helpful throughout it.

The first year at Leonardo is spent at college. Our college is PROCAT in Basildon. We had an average first year with some problems here and there but overall good. However the start of the second year was horrendous. We had no teacher for a month in one subject, no work has been marked for months, no matter how many times we ask, there is no one with the correct 'qualifications' to mark it. So we have been waiting on work from 4/5 months ago. The teaching in the 2nd year is horrible and we have no support from the college. They say they support us but do not make any changes to the complaints we have. If it wasn't for the good couple teachers, I would rate it a 1 star. College shouldn't be self taught because the teachers cannot teach properly, or even taught by myself and other students because we have done it previously in sixth form.

I personally think the course I am on and how it is being delivered has very little to do with my actual job role. Basic skills that have been taught in college do apply but these are skills I learned at the beginning of secondary school in level 2 engineering, which was still delivered better than their lessons at PROCAT. Some teachers are good but the majority of the teaching and teaching standards are just not present. The fact a secondary school with classes of 30+ students is taught better than an engineering specialised college of 15 students is shocking.

Due to Covid, most of these activities has been stopped. However, before Covid, there are a couple sporting events like football that happens once a month for example down the local club. There are multiple activities that are available like lunchtime talks that happen with companies we work alongside such as Rolls Royce.

Yes

Leonardo are a great company and design and build amazing products. I like the fact its Military related as my family come from a military background. I also like that we deal with the police along with the BBC. We are a worldwide company, mainly operating in Italy and the UK. The teaching provided at Leonardo itself is good and is recognised by other companies.

I would suggest trying to find a Leonardo that doesn't do their training through south Essex college or be prepared for some issues. Other than that, i would advise people to research the type of company we are and who we deal with as some people are against war for example and we supply their equipment so there could be some ethical issues that could come with it.