APEP Degree Apprentice Review

Daily work in CAD to produce part drawings and complete tests to deadlines. Most communication daily is within my home team however we do work with internal customers who request work and outsourcing. Work is quite varied depending on tests being completed. Usually working on a single project at a time with sole responsibility, though lots of help is available from my team.

Developed solely new skills in this team, I have never worked on CAD before, haven't used the software before, never looked at testing before, haven't using CAE software before either. Soft skills are very useful on this apprenticeship too as you need to do quite a bit of working between different teams.

The programme with the university is, on the whole, poorly taught. It's so disappointing and puts a damper on the apprenticeship as from JLR the support is great and my team have been amazing at building my skills up. From WMG however it really falls flat. Staff seem as if they're knowledgeable about their subjects but the majority are sadly unable to convey any useful information for people to actually learn from. The Engineering Mindset and both the Engineering & Physics Crash Course series on YouTube have been getting me through this first year, alongside the recommended reading, which is unfortunate given the amount it costs JLR to put us on the apprenticeship course. It is often not clear what we are meant to be learning or getting out of a lecture as before you know it 3 hours of the lecturer struggling to string sentences together on a teams call have gone by. Some content is being cut from this year we have been told but it's less that there is too much content and more that it is poorly taught. When you watch the same content on a Crash Course or engineering mindset video it turns out it is very simple! Very frustrating. Fortunately the content is usually quite interesting, but some of it can be difficult to teach to yourself.

Organisation at WMG is generally poor. Assignments and exam briefs have been changed after they've been given out and shortly before deadlines. Also, benchmarks have been changed during, and after, exams. Communication is very poor, info about what we are learning is released a couple of days before in some cases so there is no potential for preparation. On a larger scale, even the term dates for September onwards are being release in June so holiday is difficult to book in some teams. Timetables for in person, and online, weeks are given with the wrong rooms, lectures are done by eye (just the course, not lecture, title is given, no idea in advance of how much content will be covered or what that content is). Everything is last minute. Pay rises are dependent on exams so this becomes rather stressful when things are chopped and changed, also some courses are known for their high failure rate, which again is stressful when your pay is based on passing.

JLR has been great throughout this, there is support from both the HR apprenticeship team, our area team and home team. The area team and home team are most supportive and the HR team do have more sporadic check in's though do follow up in helping to chase the university for missing information. As in a previous answer, they are aware of when it comes close to assignments and we are able to take an additional university day (though in some cases we are not able to take these).

It does sometimes feel as if our training provider WMG is actively working against us doing well at the university side, with so many changes and short deadlines (e.g. 2 weeks for one assignment from when the information will be released with an end of year exam on the Friday before the Tuesday it is due with work on either side). Although many of the lectures are poorly laid out in terms of learning, most lecturers are willing to answer questions in a fairly timely fashion. Just sometimes the answer comes back as "you should have been listening" which is less useful when confused. However this isn't very common and most are very willing to help.

If taught better, the content, at least in my role, would be useful. Though, as it is poorly taught and causes more stress trying to unpick what a lecturer was trying to say it is difficult to say it will help me perform better. For some I am aware it is completely different than their job, but modules such as mechanical & material properties, are useful in my role.

There are things such as hiking, football, climbing, a karting group and I believe there was a winter ball but I have my own things I enjoy doing with family in my free time so don't personally attend but they are there if they are things people are interested in. I know there were rumours of a book club...

Yes

JLR as an employer and place to work have been excellent, the only let down so far has been having to complete the WMG course alongside. JLR is thankfully very understanding (giving extra time around assignment dates) to do extra work around assignment deadlines. The opportunity to work from home is also appreciated as it means the commute is cut out which gives me time to do university work.

It is a great company to work for, if you're passionate about automotive engineering it is very rewarding work. I love my regular job (most days!) and it is a great level of challenge. Just as a tip if you do want to do well at the university side and get a first... Possibly not the course for you. Marks are somewhat randomly assigned and there's lots of group projects. If you focus on passing the degree to do well at the apprenticeship and have a good work ethic you will do well, and JLR is very supportive of apprentices working their way up through the company & taking people on at the end of the course.