Maintenance Apprentice Review

I work in XJ BIW, my daily tasks vary depending on which section I am working in. I can be working on the line attending break downs and fault resets or I could be in a side work shop repairing tools and hydraulic power packs. I currently work in a team of 4 two apprentices including myself and two tradesmen.

I have completed 3 internal training courses in COSHH, Accident Investigation and First aid. As for developing existing skills I have not noticed that I have done this but it is possible I have refined them. I have learnt a lot of hydraulics.

I enjoy where I work and the people I work with, I feel overall the company is a good company to work for but I do feel improvements can be made to make the company even better.

With the team I work with I feel appreciated, but overall in the company I barely exist. 3 years into my apprenticeship I now have a manager who actually wants to work along side the apprentices and develop internal training programmes, but that's just for BIW. There is nothing for the apprentices in the other departments.

Either the programme is unorganised due to it being new and still being written, or the college providing the programme is the entire cause of the problem. Either way, so far in the 2 and a half years I have been on the programme I have run into endless issues with regards to the delivery of the programme.

The support from the training provider is virtually non existent. There is just a select number of tutors who go out of their way to help you. I have been in situations where I am asking the tutor I have for help on something to which I have received the reply 'I don't know'. Have am I supposed to know and learn if not even the tutor knows. Maths support, the higher apprentices had maths support of a morning before lessons started, the advanced had to sacrifice their lunch time. Prioritising much?. College overall for the time I have been here has not been enjoyable and I have been counting the days till I don't have to return.

The support I receive from my employer, so far has been good. My current manager has started to involve himself with the apprentices of the BIW department, developing internal training programmes. The people I work with directly take the time to support me with problems I may be having and also take the time to train me.

The salary I receive is very good, when I first started on the apprenticeship the salary did not cover everything I needed it to. This was due to the amount it was costing me in fuel just to get to college every week.

Other than CSR events which we are forced to do, I have not been made aware of any opportunities outside of work. All the opportunities I have had outside of work have still been within work as they have been to do with my involvement with the union.

No

Information given on the pathway choice day was false and fabricated to give the impression certain job roles were better than they actually are. This gave many of us false impressions of what to expect. This leaves a bad taste when your doing a job which you didn't sign up for, as the job you signed up for doesn't exist.

When applying for jaguar land rover I knew what I wanted to do, when making my pathway choice I knew what I was going to pick. But I would have liked to have been told the truth about the job role and not a fabricated job role to entice people in. I am lucky enough to enjoy my job but many others aren't, and that's because its not what they were told it would be. I feel on the assessment days people should not be marked down on their score just because they were last to speak and their part had already been spoken about by someone who was selfish and couldn't stick to simple instructions.