Electronics Workshop Technician Review

My role typically involves supporting teaching labs and research groups to implement their electrical and electronic needs. For teaching this usually involves setting up labs, repairing and testing demos and assisting students with 4th year projects. For research this usually involves implementing electronics to test and monitor a specific experiment related to the groups area of interest.

I've learnt a bit over these first few months of my degree, although this is largely from self directed study. I would not say however that I have learnt any new skills, partly I suppose because the first year of the degree covers what I've already done at college.

I think given the right situation I would enjoy my degree. However I'm currently travelling from Oxford to bognor upto twice a week requiring around 7-8 hours of travel per day, which can be very tiring. I'm also responsible for the cost of this travel and any additional costs associated with my degree, which adds financial pressure to the situation. Unfortunately this is not an environment that I feel breeds success.

If I could give this 0 stars I would. My degree apprenticeship has been a pickle from the start. A lack of clear communication between my provider and my employer has left more and more information being brought to light about what is required. It is only within the last couple of weeks that I've been given any time at work to complete my uni work (with the exception of lectures at chichester which my employer believed was the bare minimum required to meet the of the job training requirement).

The bare minimum. I can see a massive disparity between apprenticeships for new starters and apprenticeships used for training existing members of staff. I'm not supported financially in any way, I'm forced to make up additional time to cover my second day per week at uni (even though this is required to complete the apprenticeship) without time in lieu or additional pay. I have also reported to my employer about ongoing issues regarding the quality of teaching from my provider, however very little actually seems to be done about the fact.

Again little to none. Some of the lectures and teaching material have been so poor that I have been teaching myself using my own books and materials so that I'm able to complete the course work. This is made worse by various unfortunate events such as the main teaching building suffering an electrical fire and as a result all teaching and timetables becoming scattered and unorganised.

From the few months I've been doing it, I would say it has not.

No.

No

The answer is it depends. If it were relating to an apprenticeship for a new starter, then I would recommend them. However based on my own situation as an existing employee training via the apprenticeship levy the difference is day and night. No support in terms of time or money, a clear objective to only provide the minimum requirements, distinct lack of care for the result of the apprenticeship.

Come as a new starter. Just do not expect to have the same experience if you want to do further training afterwards. The central university seems to be really pushing apprenticeships, however no funding or directives are being given to individual departments who ultimately bare the cost. Hopefully in the next 10 years things will improve.