Multi-Craft Apprentice Review

On a day to day basis my role consists of going with my mentor on site to jobs where plant needs maintained/etc. This can include large outages where weeks of maintenance is done to the turbines. This work is both mechanical & electrical.

I’ve learned lots of new skills on my apprenticeship. From technical mechanical & electrical skills to working as a part of a team and other social skills. I’ve also found that the apprenticeship has given me more confidence and brought me out of my shell as I’m dealing with people on a regular basis and meeting new people a lot.

I enjoy the practical side of my work on site. Doing mechanical work to the turbines & etc. which is all very interesting as the machines are nearly 60 years old. I also really enjoyed my time in college in fife as it was a good laugh and taught me the basics for going to site.

I think the programme is very well structured and easy to follow. For the first 18 months or so, you are full time In college completing practical classes in mechanical and electrical. There are also theory classes and a portfolio/folder to complete while at college. After this there is a higher level portfolio to complete on site which consists of report writing on jobs and question papers to test your knowledge you’ve gained from these jobs.

I felt I was relatively well supported throughout my apprenticeship. I started during covid which made things a little more complicated while at college but I was well supported throughout this time. I felt the some of the college lecturers could’ve been a bit more helpful in keeping me in the loop for what work was still required and where stuff was in getting marked.

I’ve gotten a lot of support throughout my time on site. My managers and mentors are always willing to help and give me jobs to help out with my college work. Any issues I have are sorted really quickly as my manager is very approachable and willing to listen.

I found that the college work I completed before coming to site gave me the basic skills required to perform work on site. When I was completing write ups I also found that it allowed me to gain a better understanding of the work I was doing, and I was able to to talk about it on a more technical level.

There are some extra-curricular opportunities within the business such as competitions and etc for apprentices. I also found that’s there are a lot of networking events opportunities open to me, even while I was at college. It gave me a chance to voice my opinion and meet other apprentices on different courses and hear their experiences.

Yes

I think overall SSE is a great place to work. The apprenticeship itself is a great way to build a solid base of mechanical and electrical knowledge and skills due to the structure of the course. I also think the opportunity to earn while learning was a massive draw to apply.

My advice for anyone applying for an apprenticeship for SSE would be to go into it with a bit of confidence and be as outgoing as possible. They aren’t necessarily looking for qualifications out of school so I wouldn’t worry too much about that, just be a good communicator and show eagerness.