Software engineering degree apprentice Review

I work in a software engineering team which creates websites and tools for other engineers to use or customers. As a first year apprentice, I do some coding but not much coding yet-I do tasks here and there. This may be doing documentation, coding some features on a website, using cloud features, deploying websites on firebase, I have also done a lot of shadowing.

In my first year, I understand more of what it means to be a software engineer, ie, the process in which tasks are carried out with jira, programming, how teams use git, team sprints etc. I am in my first year so not much learnt yet.

I do enjoy my programme and I am glad to be on it. I like getting set meaningful tasks and slowly becoming a software engineer. I enjoy getting paid and being able to spend on myself, without worry of finance. I can take part in uni activities too.

Overall I would say the structure is good but there are way too many admin issues. Like 5 months into the apprenticeship, they still ask us to confirm details that we already have. A lot of apprentices are also put into non-software teams and may struggle to find a software team.

I have a great amount of support from my line manager, my mentor and colleagues for any help or advice that I need. I have regular 1 to 1 meetings with my line manager.

I would say they are like a typical university where teachers just read from slides but they are responsive to any questions you have and will help you. We also have apprentice tutors that we have meetings with to check on us every 8-10 weeks. They help to make sure we hit our targets.

As a first year, I can say that some modules help you in work and some do not. For example, the programming module where you learnt how to use git and code in python helped, but maths, business etc were not that helpful. But I am in first year, so experience is limited.

Yeah there are social activities and societies at JLR like the ISOC society. There is organised football, bowling etc. But I usually take part in activities within the university, like ISOC, basketball etc. Its possible to get involved with these extra-curricular activities but it can be a little difficult with a fulltime job.

Yes

You get to work in a prestigious automotive company and get a russel group university as a learning provider with just 3 Cs for A levels. These will look good on your CV and make you stand out. Compared to other apprenticeship courses, you are actually able to take in uni activities more often than other apprenticeships too. Good salary too.

Make sure you apply and you research the company thoroughly. For the interview, make sure you come up with answers that show the core values of the company.