PTME Control Engineer Review

My job title is Powertrain Manufacturing Controls Engineer. At this point in time I am still on placements moving around our department. As our department is responsible for the design, installation of engine manufacturing plants, my day to day tasks involve a wide variety of things, such as, building control charts, fixing issues on the lines, to managing my own projects, and contractors. My most recent project has been the installation of a ManSafe system which will stop people from falling out of a 1st story roller shutter door once it is open. This is for when machinery breaks down on this floor, people can now used harnesses and personal rescue devices to attached themselves to a wire above the door, so if they do fall out, they can lower themselves to the ground safely.

I have already gained a number of PEO's and UPK's, as well as a foundation degree in manufacturing. I am now studying at warwick university, whilst also doing a level 4 NVQ in leadership for the apprenticeship. As well as this I have also learnt a great deal of stills such as project management, organisational skills, and contractor management, which also I have not gain a qualification in , as still invaluable skills to learn.

My enjoyment of the program tends to vary from day to day. Most of the time I thoroughly enjoy it, as I know I am gaining new skills and have the capability to put them to use. However there are still many days in which I feel overworked, and the workload on top of university and NVQ's gets too much. I do however occasionally have the opposite where teams in the company struggle to find me work to do, which leaves me to find my own work, or just do university work instead. Unfortunately the company culture varies a lot between departments, and mainly depends on how the manager of that department treats you. Most of the programme is above my expectations, however it does seem a bit disjointed between the education side, and the work side.

Similar to my last comment manager appreciation is very varied from department to department. Most managers however don't give much appreciation to apprentices which make me feel like cheap labour rather than someone helping the team. Although I have been give some recognition from projects, which a number of engineers telling me what a good job I had done, I still felt a bit knocked down my my manager at the time, who promised an internal reward for doing such a good job, which then never came true. Although I get a lot of chance to get involved, a lot of time most of the recognition goes to the engineers supervising us.

The Education side of the apprenticeship is well organised, with a good induction, and training for foundation degree, university degree, and internal support from internal training managers. When transitioning between college and work, this could be done better, as work and education sides or the apprenticeship are very disjointed to each other. The apprenticeship does give support for studying however, as they give us 5 hours a week to study. This can be rather difficult to enforce however as again some internal managers don't like giving it to us.

The university lecturers provide a lot of support outside of university times, with great accessibility to a webpage, with most of the university content on it. The university lecturers also give great guidance if queried with any issues. The lecturers and internal training managers have a great attitude to helping apprentices with issues, and are normally easily contactable. I enjoy the training provided by the apprenticeship.

We receive a lot of support from the apprentice team, mainly though the ITM's, however also through email if we need to contact the senior members of the apprentice team directly. The HR team in my department are also easy to speak to if I have any issues. All have a great attitude toward helping myself with any problems I have, and have good advice with the issues as well.

We get paid extremely well at Jaguar Landrover. I can easily meet my living costs, as well as Social costs. An issue I personally have is that I have to travel a lot between sites, which are an hour apart, and I am not allowed to claim travel time. Although the company does pay for my mileage, this means I am out of the house up to two hour longer than most of my piers.

We are give opportunities to go to some company events, as well as joining university societies and clubs. Although we do struggle due to being on other sites, or not being able to join a number of sports teams due to working hours, this is understandable, as I can't see anywhere letting us out of work for these activities.

Yes

Because it is a good prestigious company to work for. Although there is still room for improvement within jaguar land rover, I do still believe it is a good company to work for, with most people working to help the apprentices as much as they can. Combined with the good amount of pay I would definitely recommend it to a friend.

Make sure you touch up on your Maths for the application process as well as ensuring you have looked out for more than just qualifications in the past. For the interviews be honest and friendly, and try to show how much of a team player you can be. If you can get as much experience before applying as possible. I would have liked to have been told the actual job positions we had applied for before applying however I know these change from year to year.