Maintenance Engineer Apprentice Review

I am a maintenance engineering apprentice and my role is to provide support to the manufacturing team at the factory. This is achieved by working to fix breakdowns and recovering machines from faults. Other tasks I take on as an apprentice are to take on projects within the factory that will provide some kind of improvement to the business, whether this be a cost saving by reducing waste or reducing the health and safety risks in the workplace by finding an alternative solution or removing the risk from the process entirely.

Whilst at college I received a level 3 in maintenance engineering and a level 2 in performing engineering operations which taught me a host of new skills including machining and fault finding on pneumatic rigs. Since being in factory I have had little opportunity to employ those skills. I have however had some training in plant from external sources for IT related skills. These skills specifically are the retrieving of data from the DC tooling we use and a basic understanding of the SAP system.

I enjoy working for the prestigious name of jaguar land rover and with the range of people that are in their employ, however, I am often left with little to do and have to find work to do. This often means just running machines or walking around trying to find something to do. There is little thought for apprentices at the EMC and when there are maintenance tasks to do, they usually fall to the manufacturer because of warranty and service plan commitments.

I receive recognition from the line managers when I have undertaken a task and completed it well. I have felt valued by other members of the maintenance team when I have been working with them on projects in the assembly hall where I was given freedom to get heavily involved in the design and construction of trades test rigs.

The college section of this apprenticeship was well structured. We had clear goals as to what we had to achieve by the end of the year and a rough plan as to how we would achieve it. Once in plant, although there were a few people willing to aid us, there has been little structure.

Since the on take of a dedicated training manager at the plant from our training provider there has been a vast improvement in the support I receive from them. As there is someone on site, they are more easily contactable and available for one to one's.

I rarely hear from my apprentice manager so there is little support from that side. In plant our maintenance manager is very supportive and enabling. He provides us with funding and clearance to progress our projects and is a very easy person to talk to.

In the first year it was a bit of a struggle living on my own and having to pay for transport and living costs, however the rate for stage pay scheme allows your pay to rise fairly quickly. I now earn more than I have done monthly than in any other job I've had leading up to this.

We have the employee learning scheme (ELS) in place across the company which allows us to take up an activity outside of work that will be part funded by work. This is a great scheme as it allows employees to learn a new skill or to take up a new hobby without having to put up all the money themselves. We also take part in CSR/careers events where you get to speak to a whole range of different people about the apprenticeship and jaguar land rover itself.

Yes

The money is great for an apprenticeship and other sites have more structure to their apprenticeships. It is also a really good name to work for and the qualifications are good for life.

Take time with your application and make sure to make full use of the space provided for your answers. Sell yourself well and don't get too nervous at the assessment centre days, the interviewers all came from similar positions as apprentices themselves.