operations apprentice Review

Operations apprentice, including hands on work with regards to assembly, testing and inspection of missile components and assemblies. working alongside skilled workers and performing the actual tasks that they do to the same standard. also having to work towards gaining qualifications, including an nvq and a hnc, with attending college one day a week and working towards these in our spare time.

I have had the ability to work on existing skills that I had picked up as well as evolving these skills and also using these skills to gain other skills. working in different areas has help me gain an understanding and an appreciation of other parts of engineering that I had not given much attention to. personal development is the major thing that has been developed which in itself has been a very valuable thing, not just inside work.

the variety of the work available on the apprenticeship scheme is more than what I would've expected. this is the same regarding the assembly part of the work. the people who I have worked with have been very nice and welcoming and have been easy to get along with. this also goes for the other apprentices. some times it can be quite difficult to adapt when entering a new working environment though

the value seems to come with being amongst the youngest of the workers, especially due to there being many people who are coming close to retirement. there seems to be a lot of opportunity stemming from this when they will need replacing. external recognition doesn't seem to be as simple to see, due to the nature of the work the company does, with the only real recognition coming from the actual apprenticeship scheme.

the scheme itself is well set out. being able to know where you will be working a year in advance is good to be able to anticipate what may be required and to adapt to it. it can be very difficult to gain help with a problem or to get something sorted, especially if this is an individual problem, with it seeming to fall on deaf ears most of the time. major problems tend to get sorted, like major college issues, but these have to be highlighted a few times before the correct action is usually taken.

the college we attend has not been up to a standard that would be expected. this has lead to a lot of disruption in the education side of the scheme. MBDA has looked into the problem and the college has started to improve, although there is some way to go. the support with the nvq comes from a training provider. although on the face of it this support seems adequate, all of the support comes from one person.

the employer's support has improved recently, especially with the addition of regular meetings to be able to voice concerns with every aspect of the whole work process, from education to how the facilities are. this should have been implemented sooner as some of the other apprentices have already had this for years. there has only been positive outcomes to this though, with all the concerns raised being sorted.

I would say there isn't much of a problem with the way the salary and payment is done. the only real problem is the negative effect having a competitive payment structure (basically getting paid more than someone else for placement performance AND college performance). for example, having college and qualifications as a factor in payment can lead to a competitive environment in the wrong place, for example somebody seeing themselves as gaining when someone else is struggling and using the payment to justify not helping them out.

there are a few opportunities to attend events for careers and recruitment. these however can be very hard to be accepted for, with location being one big factor. having to do college work and nvq work when you are also having to do a full time working week, and usually not being able to do any of this work when at work, can take a lot of the time to relax and unwind away from you.

Yes

there can be a lot of different opportunities available. the scheme itself is a much better alternative to going through with going down the college and university route as the pros greatly out weigh the cons.

a lot of people seem to think that not having confidence in yourself, may that be academic confidence or something like having to do a presentation etc., means they cannot do a proper stem apprenticeship. apprenticeships like this one will work on this and develop skills that are useful outside of work as well as inside of work.