Design Engineer Apprentice Review

I'm currently doing a level 4 design apprenticeship at Schneider Electric. The job that I do currently involves adding place holders to existing copper parts which can allow production to easily enter in a part number onto these parts. I've also had the responsibility of making sure that new parts are all up to date and are ready to be added onto EMCN which allows production to start creating these parts. I also attend college one day a week where I am currently doing a maths unit.

I have gained more knowledge about how to do my job properly over my six months I have been here. One of the main factors that has helped me gain more knowledge with my job is getting work exposure in the factory as this has helped me understand how products are being made which can help me when it comes to designing parts for products.

My overall experience at Schneider Electric has been good so far but there is still a long way to go for me in terms of training. I've had the experience of knowing how to modify existing designs and upload new parts onto the EMCN but I haven't yet been exposed to other parts of design such as understanding how to design new parts.

I felt that the first few months of my apprenticeship was unorganised due to the fact that the main training that we were meant to be doing kept on getting pushed back. However, after 6 months of being here, I have been given more training on the design tasks that I have been set.

If I have any questions or concerns, I can speak to my manager whether that is through teams or in person. There are various benefits that are included with my apprenticeship including the company contributing to your pension and being able to access certain facilities through them such as gym cards and shopping vouchers.

I feel that the support I get from college with my assignments is limited due to the fact that the only way in which I can get help from college is in person. I also think that they should be giving using learning resources online for access at any time so that I can go back over different lessons to see what I need to work on.

With the unit that I am currently doing at college which is maths, I don't feel that college work is helping improve in my job role at the moment, but when it comes to doing units such as the design unit, I feel this can help perform better in my job.

At work, there is currently a social committee group. The group consists of several apprentices who work together to host social events for apprentices across the country. An event that they have recently hosted is the apprentice quiz night. They also have plans to try out different types of social events.

Yes

Schneider Electric is a company where it is expanding in size all the time and is always improving in terms of providing their employees with the best benefits. You have the opportunity of changing career paths at Schneider throughout your time with them and might even get the change of travelling abroad to work with them.

The main tip that I would give to people who are applying to Schneider Electric is to be patient. When you start work here, you are not always going to get the answer straight away to issues, but overtime with lots of exposure to different areas of your work and communicating with lots of people along the way, you will get to understand more about how to do your job.