Engineering Apprentice Review

A four-year electrical & mechanical engineering apprenticeship which involved a year full time followed by three years of day release at Kingston College. During this time I worked within all Maintenance departments in a rotational placement scheme at the Slough site.

BTEC Level 2 - Engineering BTEC Level 3 - Operations and Maintenance Engineering Function Skills L2 - Information and Communication Technology NVQ L2 - Performing Engineering Operations NVQ L3 - Engineering Maintenance Key Skill L2 - Improving Own Learning and Performance Key Skill L2 - Working with Others HNC Level 4 - Electrical and Electronic Engineering

The team are extremely enthusiastic about the apprenticeship and passing on their knowledge to apprentices. Each day is different from the next and an enjoyable experience

I feel very appreciated by everyone at Mars, because as apprentices it falls on us to keep the business growing and bringing in new talent.

A very clearly structured 4 year apprenticeship with rotational placements in all factory departments to learn and obtain a broad knowledge of the site.

Kingston College provided all the formal training in the first year and subsequent 3 year day release. They have many years of teaching engineering apprentices and are fully supportive.

The apprenticeship is carefully managed onsite as part of the training team and all apprentices report directly to the apprentice manager whom is able to train and mentor throughout the 4 years of development.

The salary is on the higher end for an apprentice from what was available to me at the time of looking. However the package is one of the best available even to this day with a good number of holiday days as standard, plus private healthcare and an excellent pension scheme.

Yes

As a result of my experiences going through the Mars apprenticeship myself - I would definitely recommend.

My advice for the engineering apprenticeship would be to find passion in engineering and include this in your CV e.g. an engineering hobby such as working on cars/bikes or through engineering subjects at school.