Mechanical and Electrical Apprentice Review

In the first year you are based at Weston college Monday - Friday to learn the courses that are required for the apprenticeship and some that airbus has selected themselves, in the second and third year you are on day release to go to college to further develop your knowledge needed. During the time at the there are subjects that are irrelevant to the work at airbus and does not help you while on the shop floor. In addition to the second and third year the other three days will consist of working on each section for a set amount of time paired with a fitter that will help you learn the skills and knowledge for the specific jobs you are tasked with. I am rating this as a 5/10 as there is a lot of stress caused however the time on the shop floor is pleasant due to the personalities and people you come across.

Yes, during the 3-4 years as an apprentice you do learn lots of skills and knowledge, whether that be at college or on the shop floor, in addition from my answer on the first question, some of the knowledge is hard to make use of due to the fact that it will not be needed while working as a qualified aero fitter. However the skills developed from the training held by the fitters that you work along side of are beneficial and they are always there to help.

Me personally I done work experience at Airbus and was fascinated by this and since that I made sure I got the required grades to enter the apprenticeship. Over the course of the 3 years there has been ups and downs which does cause stress and in some cases to be very annoyed with the program due to it being disorganized in areas that are very important to the developing of skills and evidence required to qualify. While on the shop floor you can build great relationships with the people and have great laughs, to which this is good to get through the shop floor days where things might not go your way. This also helps when you need assistance with work, whether that is in regards to a task on the shop floor or the college based work. In addition the culture between different work groups can be disheartening as there has been instances that as craft apprentices in our year the term "we are one" does not seem to be vacant.

Over the 3 years there has been many issues regarding the standard to the lessons in college and the environment at airbus, there has been cases when we have brought to light issues and it has either taken a lot of time to be dealt with, too late to be dealt with or not been dealt with at all. This impacts our learning as the necessary requirements of our knowledge to help us finish the tasks take longer as the shop floor has expectations that we do not meet. Although there has been instances that when issues are dealt with regardless of how long the issue was occurring for, it has made a positive change, however this is scarce. When working on the on the shop floor there is a placement tracker to make sure each apprentice rotates between areas efficiently, with enough time to learn the skills require, during the majority of the apprentice time this did not work well and many issues occurred.

Support from the employer is received and issues surrounding the more personal aspects of life in and our the work place is dealt with in a professional manor. When working on the shop floor the importance of getting along with fellow aero fitters is shown as they do not want you to fail and they try their best to make sure that you finish your apprenticeship as the best fitter you can be, you learn a lot from the team on the shop floor, this can be from completing the job and even knowledge on life as they will have more experience than you. Not taking into account the shop floor work life, when needing help from others there is an impression that the help you receive does come across as, they are giving it to you just because it is their job and noting else.

During the first 2 years the assessors we were provided with were inadequate for the job as they lacked the knowledge themselves surrounding the topics we must learn to help us build the necessary understanding to help become qualified. This was extremely negative as we were behind on the evidence we required for the NVQ work. In regards to college based learning some teachers were again inadequate and also didn't help when the lesson was irrelevant. However there are teachers that are great people and have a good back ground in regards to the aero space industry, to which they go above and beyond to help you, these good people are also found on the shop floor with as I already mention that the aero fitters you work with don't want to see you fail and will help you any way they can whether this be shop floor learning, NVQ or College.

The courses we learn in college does not have any major affect on our role as they mostly consist of irrelevant topics, this being knowledge we will never need as an aero fitter. There are some lessons that help you understand why certain things on an aircraft are needed and why they are needed. This does not help us in our role as some knowledge will help us pass the qualification it does not help us complete the jobs required

I have only played a couple of football matches with the shop floor fitters against one another. However in relation to the other actives named in the question I have not done any as their are either ones available that me personally I do not have any interest in or simply as an craft apprentice is not available to me, we were supposed to have an event called outward bounds that did not happen due to Covid 19. However as an craft apprentice there are many more undergraduates and or other apprentice groups and their decision of ideas heavily out weigh ours due to the numbers.

No

Because of the more negatives during the past 3-4 years the stress and anger that occurs is not something I would recommend to someone, whether they are just coming out of school or are older. If I had someone show me the issues and situations that would occur during my time I would of probably made a different decision.

Make sure you focus on the lessons and do not let unfinished work build up as this will cause unneeded issues, when on the shop floor pay close attention to the skills and knowledge the fitters teach you as this will help you a lot, and make sure you get along with them and everyone on the shop floor knows one another and people talk. if you make a bad impression this can cause people to be reluctant to help and work with you.