Energy management commission apprentice Review

I am a commissioning engineer apprentice for Siemens, on Mondays and Tuesdays we attend school at tyne metropolitan college in Wallsend. Here we study four subjects over a semester, followed by a total of 16 assignments, this is done twice with different subjects each semester over the course of a year. When the teachers don't supply our assignments we work on other work or we write up about tasks that will highly likely be in the next assignment. On Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays we are in the office in Hebburn where we start our day at 8am and finish at half 4, wit the exception of Fridays where we finish at 1pm, the hours although reasonable are a little long considering we have no challenging tasks given to us in the meantime, although at this instant it is more of a good thing as teachers are late with their assignments and work is piling up too fast for anyone to be able to finish them in the time demanded due to the tardiness of said teachers. As for daily interactions, we don't seem to ever be assigned with anyone who benefits from experience in this type of working environment, we daren't ask anyone as they all do seem very busy with their work and so are we as of now but earlier on when we were much newer to the business it would have been helpful to have been assigned, therefore compared to our other co-apprentices it can feel quite often as if we have been forgotten about.

Being quite honest I don't feel as if any new skills have been learnt if not only by me then by anyone else, the college work is either a matter of us already having learnt it in previous years or that the teachers don't really go above and beyond to explain things to us even after we ask them for help, they do help to a certain extent but not much further than that. As for when we are in the office, as stated previously, we were never given anything to do and now cannot really focus on anything else as most of our 16 assignments are being handed to us with only 5 weeks to go.

As of yet I am not thrilled with the program, however I believe that this will indeed change for the better as when college will end we will be assigned more challenging tasks from the company themselves, the team in the Hebburn office although they seem nice are naturally very busy with their own work which leaves little time to socialize. All this being said the program is promising it is simply that this being the new and updated program, problems are still being ironed out and once this college term is over I believe that the program will meet expectations.

Siemens as a company are very caring for their workers and they do hold up and surpass their reputation of being such a company. I do feel as part of the Siemens team as far as the company goes, this being said, within the office itself little time is given for other employees to be able to socialize, this isn't necessarily a bad thing however as this is down simply to Siemens employees being hard workers rather than extreme expectations from the company.

The induction week at Brathay was a massive success in my eyes as it did allow strangers to get to know and trust each other to ready them for the working environment. The support from the company is very motivating and aids productivity. This being said the college work is quite poorly structured, this is due to the fact that the college is ill-prepared for the condensed year, it would be made easier if they were to accept their lack of preparation and learn from it by having the assignments ready for the students before the course starts, however this is not the case and over both semesters we have been assigned or will be assigned more than half the assignments with less than 5 weeks of a 15 week course for each semester to go. Although it has been brought about to several people including the head of our course we seem to constantly be shrugged off, as if our opinion did not count. Although the idea of a condensed course is a good idea and has many benefits for the company and the apprentices, the school it is held at is not suited to such a task and it is shown with the total lack in care for their students and its half hearted teaching methods.

We receive a healthy amount of support from our training providers, they listen to our thoughts and do not shy away from telling us the truth that we need to hear, all being said no complaints can be made about the support given to us by our training providers.

Our employer is very supporting of all their employees, they make sure our needs are met and do not fail to uphold their reputation of looking after their employees.

As an apprentice, the salary is fantastic, it helps so much for a young employee who wants to start off well in life, for my case, the salary is fair, as I have to uphold and run my own life now having moved away from home. This being said it is still a livable wage as far as I'm concerned.

Seeing what a massive company Siemens is and how it is perceived by others, there are a range of different opportunities outside of work and woring for such a company does help a lot for such things in life.

Yes

They are a really good company to work for and they give you great benefits as well as look after you. Apart from the college itself which at the moment is part of our apprenticeship with Siemens I cannot fault it.

The application process is made simple and much less stressful than other applications can be, you do however need to be a hard and diligent worker to thrive in this sort of work.