Technical Apprentice Review

In my second year, I am currently rotating through different departments 6 weeks at a time, in order to gain a wider experience on the roles that my workplace offer.

I have developed great communication skills by talking to members of staff in managerial roles, and I have developed my electronic knowledge by getting first hand experience in the placements I have experienced.

I enjoyed building rapport with other member of staff, gaining experience of each department through the 6 weekly placement, fulfilling apprentice duties through given apprentice roles, and in general building a future for myself.

My apprenticeship programme is well structured with the first year being purely college based. Second year rotating through departments in 6 week segments and third year choosing a placement of our choice to interview for, in order to spend our whole third year in. This brings great structure to the programme.

My employer is very supportive, offering a variety of meetings to help with personal matter such as mental health, which take place in the form of webinars. There are also several employee resource groups that range from mental health support, diversity and inclusion, disability support to showing support to veterans within the business.

Regular support is received from the training provider. The cohort attends college every Monday and are always urged to contact via email outside of college hours, if support is needed in the form of assignment help.

My training provider allows us to experience hands on work during the first year in order to gain a baseline understand of electronics, with a higher output of theory work in the second year, while gaining hands on experience back at work in our placements and through a mandatory personal project. This helps better perform in my role at work because the qualification through my training provider allows for a variety of theoretical and hands on experiences which is useful in the workplace.

There are a variety of opportunities for extra-curricular activities at work such as, different sports teams, social activities such as quizzes for charity, and professional networking events such as parliamentary fairs, early careers roadshows and different types of training.

Yes

BAE Systems is a very successful company with great opportunities for early career development. There is an abundance of support available, opportunities to network, events outside of work to attend and in general is a great route to build a lifelong career.

I would advise others to approach applying to the BAE Systems apprenticeship scheme as open, honest and essentially yourself. Show your keen interest in working for the company and in the engineering sector and this will take you far.