Aircraft Mechanic Apprentice Review

working in a part 147 environment training to be an aircraft mechanic mostly from training material and some practical training too

i already had previous hand skills from other jobs, but have learnt many things to expand my knowledge of the role i will be doing, i now know much more about the facts of the job, haven't had too much chance to demonstrate practical skills or develop more on these but that's because most of the time in the first phase of this coarse is classroom based

there were problems throughout, from small to major, examples of which are the training material provided, full of contradictions and spelling mistakes in some modules, but others completely fine, doesn't make up for the fact that there should be no mistakes in the material were learning from, giving us incorrect info and potentially in the line of work causing issues down the line, the exams also had words missing, spelling mistakes, and questions that were not in the notes at all, and there is proof of such issues too, not just for our cohort. this is the issue of the training provider resource group, more specifically there material creators and reviewers, nothing to do with there instructors here or the company i work for BAE, the instructors have done there absolute best to teach us, and worked with us to understand the notes and provide us with the knowledge we need, but the exam issues are pretty much unacceptable at this point

a lot of moving about and changing plans, missing time on practical work, not enough time in some modules not always due to the material but sometime due to the slow pace of some instructors. but all i all the teaching was organised well enough, the notes and material not so much, and the management seemed too busy at times to be able/want to listen to some issue found, and with the business expanding, i worry that in the future this may become a real problem

from BAE, there are a plethora of resources we can use as employees if we need help online, there are specially appointed staff we can turn to if we have any problems. the problems only lie with the busyness of the training and material managers, who don't have time to help fix the issues of the material, or at times didnt want to believe us with the issues we found in the material, although again, that was mostly resource group

not a lot in all honesty, they claimed we can go to them to repot issues, and on only one occasion has something been done, a word was missing in an exam, which would completely change the meaning of the exam depending on where the word went, it was added in after a meeting was staged after we all publicly expressed are issues with a module and its layout, but this didn't effect how the exams were processed and marked, even though it is known to have been a blatant issue and would affect results, not only this, it threw everyone's confidence in that exam, and then it continued with spelling mistakes throughout, and that's just one exam, others had questions not in the notes, we provided proof, nothing was changed, so are results stayed the same after being asked questions we hadn't been taught, and means those questions may reappear for other classes. it is believed by many that the new material released is not proofread for errors, and its is almost obvious that the exam questions are just an exact copy of the old note questions, even when in the new notes material is removed. in the defence of the teaching instructors, they have in the past made note of such issues but nothing seems to have changed due to this, and they have tried there best to explain the correct meanings as they all have an incredible amount of on job knowledge

i feel i have been provided with the knowledge i need, as well as some that i dont need but that cant ever be a bad thing in my opinion. i cant praise most instructors enough on how much knowledge they have and how much they want to help us learn and grow in this business. i haven't been given any practical experience on the specific thing i will be working on, but trust that in the second phase i will learn exactly what needs to be done

no, we have mentioned it in meetings, but its not something the company seems too bother about, has defiantly lead to a divide between classes/cohorts, and some divide within other cohorts. there has been activities for one cohort at a time that is part of the scheme and its called outward bound, a team building exercise to help bring a cohort together, but this is part of the apprenticeship and required by the company, so i would say it counts as extra-curricular

Yes

because BAE have provided me with opportunity to train for a dream job, encouraged me along the way mostly and provide many many benefits to there employees. the problems with the apprenticeship this far have not come from BAE but the training providers, so i would recommend this company to anyone with an interest, there are so many different jobs that can be done working for them and so much to learn and support along the way

the company provides training for military aircraft maintenance, a licence to work on civilian aircraft can not be full earned (but at the moment can in part, although this is coming to an end very soon) this was not explained to us in the interview even when directly asked, so for people with aspirations for civi, it may not be for you. however, if your aspiration is to work on fast jet and to aid in the protection of the nation, there is no better company to work for. the support is there to be used, the knowledge is there to be gained, and the experience i believe will be incredible, im greatly looking forward to the future thanks to the company i work for