Test Engineer Review

At the moment I am at the Cecamm site full time so a lot of the work I am doing is college based, effectively I go into college start my day doing various lessons and continue doing that throughout the day, I also have free periods when I work on course work on my own.

I have learnt a myriad of new skills and techniques while working at bae already. I have learnt about soldering and pcb design and construction, although I knew how to solder in my last apprenticeship I have learnt a great deal more than I had known in had known in the previous one.

The programme has been good, although there is a lot of course work I have managed to keep on top of it. The people that I work with within and outside the company have been really nice and cooperate on my work and help me. So far the experience has been good.

The organisation of the programme has been a little all over the place, the college has one idea of there hnc and BAE has another. The coarse is part split up doing a portion of level 2 modules in the main week and the level 5/4 stuff on monday. The level 2 modules are very easy and the hnc monday content is extremely hard in comparison. None of this was explained when applying for the coarse in simple terms. Some of the modules like metal work will not be relevant to me as a test engineer.

I receive good support from bae and the employees there. The college is also good, however the support chain is not as good as it is at BAE systems. The system simply isn't as robust as it is in BAE but is still good I think there is room for improvement but overall it is good.

The college is good at providing support, however the site I am at Cecamm does not have enough employees to facilitate all the roles adequately. A lot of the tutors are acting as assessors because a lot of them have left for more relaxing jobs or have retired completely. This is obviously not ideal.

At the moment because I am in a year at college I don't have great understanding of my job role. As I continue I would be able to compare and contrast this question more effectively. But at the moment I think the college work that I do will somewhat help me at BAE but that the context of my job is so niche that it will always be a struggle.

I have not been to any extra-curricular activity's officially held within the college or the BAE site. I have had emails about them at BAE but not at college. As a group are small group of BAE apprentices did go out on a social but his was only for a small group of our team.

Yes

From the experience I have had they are a great employer and have the best interests at heart. They truly believe that I need to be the best I can and will push me in a productive and positive way to help me build my career and job role I will strive to do better.

Make sure to do as much research as possible, make sure to ask lots of questions about the job itself and understand what is expected of you. Make sure to be competent and have a good attitude when it comes to the work and course work and treat people with respect.