Climatic test fitter/technician Review

My day to day role mostly involves prepping vehicles for tests in different climates. This means changing the wheels on vehicles, installing the vehicle into a chamber, which could include a rolling road and would need strapping down. My job also involves anything that needs doing to the vehicle while it is mid test.

In the first year of the apprenticeship, I learnt multiple different skills, including welding, engine building, sheet metal, fitting, turning and milling. As well as all of the class room classes, which include wiring, electronics, engineering drawings, health and safety, steering, suspension and just general engine principles. Most of the learning that I undertook was in college.

I think there are some enjoyable aspects of my programme. However, I would not necessarily have chosen this department to carryout the majority of my programme if I had the choice. I find that the majority of my enjoyment comes from the people that I work with rather than the actual work that I carry out.

I think there are some aspects of the programme that are really organised and structured well. However, for most of the day to day aspects of my programme, there is very little to no organisation or structure. There seems to be a large communication issue between the different aspects of the programme, and it means that it often falls to me to ensure that my needs are met.

For "my employer" I am going to answer that as my line manager. Both line managers that I have worked under have been incredibly understanding and helpful and have given me as much time as I need to ensure that I achieve the most that I can. However, as a company, this is not widely accepted and this is not the case everywhere.

In more recent months, I have received quite a lot of support, which is great. However, I have only recently received support due to the fact that I had almost none for 2 years. This is due to the fact that my support systems have changed a lot and there has been little to no communication between them.

The training provider has helped to give me a wider understanding of vehicles, and an over view of how they work. However, I spent a lot of time learning about old systems that are no longer used, yes this was helpful for an overview, but it was covered to an extent that it didn't need to be, as they are systems that we do not use.

There are extra curricular activities that people could get involved with. However, due to the fact that I work shifts, 6am-2pm and 2pm-10pm, I find that there are actually very few that I could get involved with, and even less that I could be consistently involved with, as it seems like I am in the minority of people with my shift times

Yes

The job is extremely well paying for an apprenticeship. There is also a good amount of base training which could be used in multiple different aspects of life., and in different career roles. There is also a lot of different roles within the company, and a lot of opportunities that someone could move on to.

Advocate for yourself, because there is no guarantee that anyone else will. Make sure that you are where you want to be as you could end up being stuck there for a while before being able to move. And try and make friends in as many departments as possible, so that you have a wider net of communication.