Aerospace Engineering Degree Apprentices Review

Desk officer roles in engineering delivery teams. Working with front line command and/or industry to ensure aircraft safety and availability. Certification work, safety work, application of regulation, report writing. Moving around every six months gives a huge variety of experience in a myriad of job roles. This enables a variety of day to day activities to be experienced.

Moving around very six months I have learnt a great deal of new skills. This is both on a personal soft skill level (such as communication, writing etc.) but also other skills such as using software such as power BI to use data better, work with military partners implement new and better procedures.

Throughly enjoy both the work and the university side of the apprenticeship. Whilst this can be challenging to balance a 4 day working week with 1 day of university it is manageable and the university day provides a nice break. Towards exams / coursework submission this becomes challenging but still manageable. The work is interesting and constantly learning and improving gives a sense of purpose.

This is an area that could be better and is being worked on. The university is provided by a different organisation than who teach the first 3 years causing comms issues however these have now mostly been sorted. The work side is not fully structured which has benefits - whilst future placements are not decided too far in advance it enables you to determine what you want to do and have the flexibility to organise this yourself allowing you to take control of your own career.

When needed support, it is there. Our employer provides backing when required and tries to sort issues quickly. They provide a good example of what to do and when to do it and can offer guidance. The placement managers will change for each placement and these are the people who provide the best support and often have a profound impact on your apprentice and outlook of the job.

Our training provider goes above and beyond to support our university work. Whilst there are a number of common issues, the lecturers go above and beyond time and time again. They have time to talk through issues and the small class sizes (as opposed to full lecture halls) for the first two years is an incredible benefit.

The job role we are in requires logical thinking, application of some soft skills taught at university but rarely relies on hard engineering theory/equations. As we do not design components and act as the customer we need to understand in general the principles applied but not apply them ourselves. There is the potential for external placements which allow this to be implemented.

Yes. There are a number of STEM events to get stuck into - we get 7 volunteering days a year to attend these. The apprenticeship team put some events on and there are quite a few opportunities gained through the placement teams. This is where the majority of work socials will come from, however these are also held with an apprenticeship cohort.

Yes

The variety of experiences you can gain whilst on the apprenticeship is unparalleled when compared with other companies (after speaking with these). However it should be noted that this is not a hands on or design apprenticeship- if this is what you want then apply to a Design Organisation. If you are happy to do more management opportunities, this is one of the best there is.

Make sure you understand the role you are applying for as mentioned above. Being able to communicate with people is a great skill to have and this will help to develop this. Always best to know about the company, the planes/helicopters we procure and understand the importance of safety throughout.