Object test engineer Review

I work as an objective test engineer for the Driving Dynamics team in JLR. My role involves me developing current test suites of driven vehicle testing, planning and performing vehicle testing both in the UK and abroad, and processing the reviewing the data collected during testing. I am also out at university 5 weeks of the year and am completing a NVQ L4 which takes up about an hour a week.

For my job role I have completed a number of internal driving courses, been on training to use the data collection instrumentation, and been trained on how to interpret and process vehicle data using scripts written in MATLAB. During my apprenticeship I have also completed a foundation degree, and will complete an NVQ L4 and Degree in Applied Engineering from the University of Warwick.

I'm in my final few months of the 6 year degree apprenticeship and still feel that I made the correct decision joining the apprenticeship scheme and full enjoy my job role. I joined the first year JLR started doing the degree apprenticeships so there have been a large number of teething issues, especially during the last few months, but from speaking to people who have joined more recently I believe that these are being sorted and future years will run much more smoothly.

I feel incredible valued by my team and management within my work area. this is because of the responsibility that I given and the extra training and resources that they provide for me. Not all teams I have been in have been the same as they haven't had the time to integrate me in during a short placement but I was allowed to move around to a number of different teams. The large number of placements I did really helped to me find the team that best fitted my interests and skills and now really feel like a key member of my team.

I joined the first year JLR started doing Degree Apprenticeships which means that there were a lot of teething issues and lack of clear guidance from the apprenticeship team, especially during the beginning and final through month of my 6 year apprenticeship. Having been involved in share fairs for new apprentices and speaking to people who are nearer the beginning of the scheme, I can see that this has greatly improved. Improvements involve presentation stalls ran by each department to see which role fits your interests best, and placement plans ran by your home department.

I feel a great deal of support from Warwick University for my degree work and always been able to get help/clarification when needed.

I have a training manager who helps with my NVQ work and is a go between my work management and apprentice team. I really appreciate my training manager and he is very easy to raise any issues to. Most training manager are also ex-JLR staff so can relate to any issues easily.

The salary is very good with apprentices starting on just over £20k pa and pay increases of around £1.6k pa every 6 months. Current ending salary of just over £38k pa for a 37 hour a week contract. To get the pay increase, the apprentice must be performing well, keeping up with assignments, and not have any disciplinary issues.

There are a large number a clubs and social activities within each department. In my department there are a number of evening for people to play football at a range of abilities, cycling, go-karting events and many more. Through the university and surrounding towns there are also tennis and rowing clubs, rock climbing and a large number of gyms.

Yes

This is because that there is such a large number and range of differing job roles which you are able to try and find where your real passion are. I will also be finishing my apprenticeship with 5 years of in work experience (1st year is mainly college based), a degree and a large amount of extra training which greatly increases my employ-ability over standard university students. All this while earning a very competitive salary.

For the application process my advice would be to highlight your passions and why you enjoy them. You don't have to be mad into cars and constantly tinkering on them as there are such a wide range of jobs that you can go for. I practiced a lot of mechanical reasoning questions and puzzles which helped during the test days.