Apprentice Broadcast Engineer Review

I am a BBC broadcast engineer, studying part time for my degree in Broadcast Engineering (BEng) and spending time on work placements throughout the time here. I help support the engineers at my placements and ensuring that I learn as much as possible from them about the technology used, the processes that content has to go through before broadcast and the different software used within the industry.

Yes, I have already learnt a lot about the scope of the discipline; I have been working hard at listening to snippets of information and storing them so that I can look them up later as often it cannot be done straight away.

I really enjoy being on the scheme, I think so far I have liked the basic electrical training and experimenting with the technology most, as it is a more hands on approach to the course. The university part is tough as it is all condensed into a few weeks a term but I still enjoy the learning aspects.

I genuinely feel like I'm part of a huge company that still appreciates every single one of their employees. I always have someone I can contact on the end of an email to help with any issues and everyone I have encountered has been helpful and answered any questions I have given them.

It is very well organised in that we had a year spreadsheet from before day 1 entailing everything we would be doing this year. We have access to the extended version of this as well so can see into the second year, as well as being able to use the BBC gateway to book things and contact our manager about any problems we see.

This course is sponsored by many companies so support comes from whoever you are on placement with at the time. The BBC are very good at keeping tabs on where we all are and what we are up to, as well as emailing to ask for updates and give advice. The support is good and there if you need it, you just have to take the initiative to ask.

The BBC gives a lot of support to its staff, including being able to set up pension schemes, use the online gateway to access programmes and information we might need. They keep in contact with weekly emails and I'm sure if I had any issues someone would be able to help me out within the company.

For me living at home and receiving London weighting for the travel costs, I am content that I will not be short of money. If I had to rent then I would be more concerned but I think it would still be enough to cover the essentials of daily living.

There are plenty of events and activities you can sign up for, the BBC has many social groups as well, including LGBT+ and sport, for a variety of people to get involved with.

Yes

It is a company with clear values, that caters to both their audiences and their employees. There is always a friendly vibe around any of the offices and they are unique in their approach to communicating with their audiences. One of their values is "We are one BBC" which is always evident when looking at teams working together across all disciplines.

All across the BBC, they are looking for creative talent. Thinking about your strengths, make sure you know your niche and stick with it, they love individuality and inquisitiveness and are not looking for the best candidate on paper, they are looking for a good person to work for them.