Maintenance Engineer Review

I am in my second year of the apprenticeship. I am in 3 month placements in different areas learning from the maintenance team and working with them. I have spent time working the the Assembly building and Paintshop. Day to day activities involves responding to faults with the team and conducting planned maintenance activities.

I have developed lots of new skills this year being more directly involved in the job role. I have learnt about all new processes and the importance of responding to faults quickly. I have been able to develop my fault finding skills and general engineering skills throughout my second year.

I have really enjoyed my experience so far and having the option to move around into different areas of the Plant really helps to broaden my knowledge and see how different departments operate. This has been a very useful insight into what is available at the end of the apprenticeship.

I have found the BMW side of the training to be very well organized and planned. We are informed what the plan for the year ahead is and are given all the necessary information. the structure of our placements has been well organized and runs smoothly. The college side has not been as organized, we have had lots of different tutors all trying to pick up work from different points and sometimes find that the teaching of the subjects is more about answering the assignments than learning the subject. Understanding these subjects can be really beneficial in our placements.

Lots of support is available from the employer whenever needed, we have bi-weekly catch ups in our placements to make sure that we are learning and have no issues in the placements. We have also had support sessions for our Technical Write Ups helping us to understand the structure required.

There is limited individual support with regards to the qualification, we do not receive catch up sessions like with the employer. There is not a lot of time for us to individually work with our tutors if needs be as the college day is mainly focused on classroom teaching where it is more difficult to work with them individually. However support is given when working through the assignment in lessons.

I have found that the written work for the qualification has not had much impact on my performance in my role. while the subjects are engineering based a lot of it has not been used. For example the module focusing on CAD I have never worked with software like SolidWorks outside of the qualification and as said in a previous question the teaching seems more focused on ticking off assignments than learning how we can apply it in our placements.

There are lots of extra-curricular activities that you are able to get involved in if you wish. There are teams like the apprentice newspaper and Charity Champions. These can be useful opportunities to network within the company and visit other sites across the BMW Group. They also hold some social events.

Yes

I would recommend it to a friend as it is a great alternative to University and College and I found that schools pushed you down the University route without fully showing us the opportunities available in apprenticeships. The skills I have developed I would not have learnt else where and it enables you to develop as a person as well as in qualifications and experience.

Do your research, look at the job roles available and what qualifications you will get at the end of it. Research the company. Visit the plant on one of the Plant Tours to come and see what you are applying for and where you would be working to get a feel for it.