Apprentice Intergrated Maintenance Technician Review

My role is to be a maintenance engineer apprentice but the role I am being used for and given within the factory is not quite to what it should entail. There are hardly any maintenance opportunities as the factory is brand new and still in warranty. I spend a lot of time operating machines and inspecting parts on the line. The majority of the maintenance tasks that happen are scheduled maintenance pm's and is only basic development.

I have learnt a lot of machinery types and what the machines do and are capable of which is good in the respect of you need to know how something works before able to fix it but this is where it stops as there has not been much training up until now where our apprentice manager onsite has started to find courses for us to take part in an learn skills we have been asking our co-ordinators for for a long time.

I enjoy coming to work at jaguar land rover but I do feel this apprenticeship has been let down slightly as there is not enough maintenance work to for-fill the role and training courses have been slim. Our college course only took us to level 2 domestic installation of electrics and in the factory we need three phase, wiring circuits and testing. The required courses we have asked for as support and learning as I don't feel confident in the knowledge we are getting within the factory will help when I pass the course and classed as a fully qualified technician.

I feel valued by the team on the shop floor and the process leaders and our new apprentice manager onsite but above that I feel like as an apprentice my learning has not been given enough thought and planning to succeed in this environment.

Up until November 2014 the apprenticeship was not going in a good direction and thanks to the new apprentice manager coming onsite the level of help and support we have been given has increased but not enough. Management above him is still letting the apprenticeship down in respects of available training and sourcing electrical and hydraulic courses to further our learning. As a second year apprentice I don't see my mentor enough throughout the months. The apprenticeship now has changed to a "trailblazer" apprenticeship for the year below and all focus has turned to them so the structure of the second and third year apprenticeship has suffered as the management and teams within the factory do not always know how to help us or point us into the right direction when the apprenticeship team doesn't respond or is hard to get help from.

The training provider we have been given is EEF from Aston, Birmingham and they have been a good help to facilities to be used offsite for fabricating parts and new tools but this is 17.5 miles away from our factory and on average 45 mins drive, so it is not always simple just to quickly do something. There is a workshop being built onsite but not yet completed.

The management at the factory are very helpful and will help as much as they can but sometimes this is not always easy when its relating to our contracts or HR. Occasionally it is hard to get in touch or a quick response from the apprenticeship management team leaving us with issues that cannot always be solved easily.

I am an older apprentice aged 26, I left my previous job in manufacturing with a wage that was almost £10,000 more a year. I have a mortgage and bills to pay so taking this pay-cut was a hard choice and my decision to do so took a long time to decide. I feel that when asked to travel to extra areas of work is a little hard at times but most of the time it is covered by expenses. On a whole the apprenticeship wage is very good compared to other company's and I am grateful to that else this would not have been possible for me. Lucky I Live local and already own my car outright as it would have been harder to afford a car on top. The wage for JLR increases each 6 months based on behaviour and work efficacy being its best at all times. This makes it easier to live and gives a more positive feeling each time there is an increase and the starting wage for an maintenance technician is very good so I am looking forward to passing my apprenticeship and moving onto that wage.

We are regularly asked to attend CSR events through work and as part of the apprenticeship we are only required to do one in the whole term but these events we are asked to take part in crop up least once a month. I enjoy getting out and about to meet new people and telling people about the apprenticeship as it has good prospects and is in-line to being a better future for myself, and with the company evolving the apprenticeship will get better and better.

Yes

I would recommend it for job security, a very good apprentice wage and good career opportunities, I would hope that the new apprenticeship structure works well for the year below and provides them with a good training knowledge and understanding.

Anyone applying to the company now has brilliant prospects and will strive as the company does in turn, I think I may have been brought into the company a little too early for this factory as in a years or two time this will be an amazing place to work and full of maintenance tasks, its just a shame at the moment all machinery is in warranty and as an apprentice we are not always allowed to work on such state of the art machines. Work hard at school achieve your grades and apply as in the long run it will always be a good choice and company to work for.