Apprentice Building Services Design Engineer Review

Liaising with architects, manufacturers and clients to deliver designs at Stage 2 (concept design) (we may only be consulting on the tendering process) up to Stage 4 (technical design), this is a full coordinated design with full specification. These stage 4 designs are often used as construction drawings, so they are at a standard where the contractors can order from our specification lists and construct our design.

Using lots of softwares including Dialux evo for lighting, Revit for full 3D coordination, Autocad for 2D design or schematics, Trimble Prodesign (was Amtech) for electrical calculations including cable sizing, voltage drop studies, protection device sizes and selectivity studies. Apart from software's other skills I have developed are building interpersonal relationships through working as part of a team or taking the lead in the design and delegating tasks to my team. My time management has improved by managing workloads and deadlines for university and work simultaneously. My ability to learn has been developed and is always tested as we are part of a constantly changing professional environment with changing regulations and ethical codes of conduct. I have visited active building sites we are involved in the design for, here I am able to learn and action best health and safety practices like wearing full PPE if required.

I really enjoy working at TB+A and I can see how fortunate we are to have the opportunities we have here to progress our careers through sponsored university courses, like the one I am on, or a month secondment I completed for example, with a facilities maintenance team at a datacentre. This experience gave me a view into the maintenance side of the construction industry. Ongoing project works and procedures gave me an insite into my everyday work at TB+A. We have regular meetings where we discuss goals, aims and how well we achieved, or didn't, last meeting's goals and aims. This is a good example of how TB+A is investing in us to promote career development. If there is anything relevant I want to see or do, I am confident TB+A would arrange it. These are just a couple examples of the opportunities offered to me by TB+A.

The programme is well structured. The workload can be a lot, but this should be expected as it is a course where you will work at the same time as studying for a degree. The associated training provider, London South Bank University, was definitely less organised than TB+A, but support available at TB+A was able to inform us on things that LSBU may not have been clear on.

A new colleague has been employed who's responsibility is to manage the apprentices and their courses at university. This has improved communications with the university and reduced confusion, however this is a new position, so was not available during our first few years. As a result the support has greatly improved. Support available from TB+A for all other aspects of work including technical support, or personal support are always available. I have a personal mentor, a line manager who I have reviews with. We also have a dedicated mental health specialist available to talk to.

A new colleague has been employed who's responsibility is to manage the apprentices and their courses at university. This has improved communications with the university and reduced confusion, however this is a new position, so was not available during our first few years. As a result the support has greatly improved.

There are always social events arranged with industry bodies like CIBSE for networking purposes. Celebratory social events with contractors and clients after a project has reached project completion are common. We also often have internal team social events where we do activities in the evening (like bowling for example) or visit the pub or play rounders or just walk at the local parks as a team. We are involved in a yearly industry 5 a side football tournament also. Man of my colleagues share interests with me including golf, snooker and squash so I play these sports with colleagues outside of work sometimes.

Yes

Varied daily tasks keeps the work interesting. I feel like my career development is ahead of the curve as a result of the support and training provided at TB+A. My responsibilities are increasing at a rate I feel I deserve, and importantly I also feel like I get the recognition I deserve for doing well. The sense of proudness I get from visiting sites I have had an input into designing is rewarding.

Take the opportunities offered. Usually building services and the associated jobs of designing them are split into two disciplines, electrical and mechanical. At the same time be aware that holistically building services design is a lot to learn and people often choose specialisms in particular parts like only lighting for example.