Craft Mechanical Apprentice Review

General aircraft work, fitting parts like engines, hydraulic components, fairings. When the aircraft has reached a certain stage in the build process we run the systems and perform function tests; such as, fuel flow, hydraulic, and ground runs.

I have learned so much on this apprenticeship, I cannot put it into words. Because of the “on the job training” that we receive you just pick up all of your knowledge and skills without realising. It’s the same as any existing skills I have, like sheet metal and structural work, you naturally improve as you work.

I completely enjoy my apprenticeship. It is a lot of work and is a challenge to complete it all but that’s a part of the apprenticeship; being able to manage your own time like we would have to when we’re fully skilled.

Apprentices make up quite a large part of the workforce within Leonardo. With Leonardo always taking on apprentices and have done for many many years; so much so that the top managers within the business were once apprentices. It shows that we are valued by Leonardo for being the future of the business.

The structure of the apprenticeship is set from day 1, you know the path of your apprenticeship and have a rough idea where you’re heading. Organisation can be difficult because of the nature of the business, it is not always possible for something to be organised weeks in advanced meaning that things can be left short notice.

The college can be difficult to receive straight forward answers from and can always be improved.

We receive a lot of support from our employer. We have email and phones numbers for our training managers if we need to get in contact with them for any reason and they try their hardest to be there to listen to us.

As with everything the more you earn, the more you spend, you can’t really help it. The salary we are paid cannot be complained about at all!

As being an apprentice you have the options to join a committee that help raise money for a local charity each year as well as run social events for the trainee population. There are always events taking place that we can go to.

Yes

The work we do is not done by many other companies in the world and as a manufacturer of some of the world leading rotary wing aircraft currently in production, why would you not want to work here? Also the money is [This section of the comment has been removed by a member of the RateMyApprenticeship Team because it did not meet our site terms and conditions] good!

Be honest and don’t be somebody you think they want. That’s what I did and I’m just coming to an end of my 3rd year.