Body Engineering Degree Apprentice Review

I am currently in my first year doing a degree apprenticeship in the Body Engineering department. I am full time in college this year meaning that I need to attend a college in Leamington Spa every day of the week from 8am-4.45pm. This year, I am studying to obtain an NVQ and a foundation degree in engineering. This is done through doing 3 weeks of "higher education" (theory work) and 6 weeks in the workshops doing practical work. This is repeated four times throughout the year. Higher education subjects I have are ASSET, mechanics, mathematics, CAD and materials. Workshop modules I am doing are engine build, project planning, CNC, milling, turning and fitting.

I have learnt new skills primarily in the workshop by doing engine build and CNC, and also learning CATIA (CAD) and ASSET (how to write formal reports). Skills that I have developed are project planning, mechanics, mathematics and materials. I have also learnt how to adapt to completely new surroundings, people and time schedules.

Currently, as I am full time in college, my programme has not been all that enjoyable as of yet. JLR do not run the college and so it is more of an external education system. I am not finding this college completely enjoyable to attend due to the level of respect and teaching. However, I am looking forward to my second year where I will be working in my department every day except for Mondays which will be in college.

I do feel valued by JLR as they very often make an effort to connect with you and find out what you are doing, as well as "keeping you in the loop". They do this by sending team talk emails often, as well as sending round news from your department. They also come into college every now and then to find out how you are finding the apprenticeship so far, as well as to gain any feedback and remind you of your value to the company by teaching you skills that we will need in plant. They also respond well to any issues we have and plan meetings to resolve any problems.

The programme is very well organised in terms of what is done in each year of the apprenticeship. This first year, we started with a two week long induction and one week in our departments in plant so that we could get to know each other before properly starting college. The second year is full time in plant except for Mondays in college, and from then until the last year it is working in plant for 6 weeks and going to university for 1 week.

The training provider currently is the college. I do not find that we receive an awful lot of support because the teachers and staff in the college do not seem to have an equal level of respect for the students so it is very hard to convey any issues we have to them. An example of this is that a lot of us had an issue with the standard of teaching from one teacher and when we tried to portray this problem to the college, it took around 2 months before we had any meetings or made advancements.

I do feel like we receive a lot more support from the employer as when we do have these issues with the college, we have gone to our head of department or head of degree apprentices to talk through the issue. From doing this we have had meetings involving students, JLR employees and college employees. JLR do show that they care about us a lot through these communications.

The salary varies with different people as some live at home and don't pay rent and others live with expensive rent costs. I am living at home and do not pay rent and my salary covers any fuel (I do drive about 50 miles a day with traffic) as well as food and social costs. I also manage to save £1000 a month in this situation so I think that the salary on this scheme is very good.

There are a few opportunities outside of work such as department social meetings and events. JLR also have a scheme where they give you £250 annually if you would like to learn a new skill which is very useful. Other than this I have not yet experienced many external events within my department but I hope that this will increase when I actually work in my department more often starting next year.

Yes

The company is very supportive and sociable and they really show that they care about your wellbeing. As well as this, they have many schemes from undergraduate to advanced and all are very well paying for the level of work. As well as this, they offer good schemes such as the one for learning a new skill, a cycle to work scheme, and many company discounts. Additionally, the facilities on site are very modern and professional.

Prepare for the application process by reviewing and reminding yourself of the skills and experiences you have had and thinking about how these would help you in the workplace. For example playing football could help you in working with teams of people. The assessment days are quite hard but keep the mindset that you are thinking of what is best for the company and the customer. It is definitely a very fortunate scheme to get on to as with a degree apprenticeship, you get sent to a top university which is all paid for, and you get paid for the duration. As it is 6 years long, it does take longer to get a degree but you come out with a job, new skills, experience and NO debt!