Technician (Structural) Review

Title: Technician (Buildings) One of the best things about the technician role is the variety of projects. Personally, I've worked on a number of high profile projects including international harbors, shopping centres, train/metro stations and football stadiums. Support has been available when required, and engineers always take time to go through the fundamentals of the project and ensure understanding.

The vast majority of development has been in the workplace. With each project comes new challenges, new skills and terminology to be learnt and new software to use to streamline the design. Revit is the core program and there are many skills I’m still developing in terms of best practice, and there are plug-ins such as Dynamo which I’m currently learning.

Good surroundings and a good environment to work in. There have been many challenges within my work which I have enjoyed, and the variety of the projects mean you’re not doing the same monotonous thing day in and day out. Support is always available from my mentor and the engineers on each project.

With the input I've had in some designs and the tasks allocated to me, I feel I have had a good impact on some projects rather than just being a CAD Monkey. Technical advice has been asked of me in various arrangements which show a level of trust from the engineers, and opinions have been taken on board and, a lot of the time, integrated into the design.

Couple of minor glitches at the beginning relating to education, but in the workplace itself there are independent meeting held regularly with mentors/higher level personnel. The induction gave a good foundation on the processes and gave all information required about the initial systems. There are CPD events ran continuously which are free to enter and develop your knowledge of the industry.

From the actual training provider, my advisor was a fundamental part of getting through my NVQ. There were some parts where I wasn't sure how I was going to cover them in my day-to-day work, but my advisor made relevant suggestions for each of them. The NVQ itself would have been a lot more difficult to understand without my advisor.

Support is always available from various people in the office, and if nobody is available in the office there is a network available to contact people from within the company. We have a site called Yammer, where questions can be asked in various forums most specific to the question and a lot of the time suggestions are made within 24 hours of people across the international Arup network.

Travel costs are quite high due to home location and cost of car insurance. There are salary sacrifice options available for train travel, and the office is located a five minute walk from the train station, but there are no stations near me. The salary itself has made good increases since starting the apprenticeship.`

Outside of the workplace there are events organized every few months. We have a sports and social group who run through the funding and allocate it to certain events. We have strategic charitable partners who we work closely with for volunteering opportunities, and STEM events are organized for schools within the office.

Yes

Overall a good company to work for.

You aren't expected to know everything when you start, just keen to learn and continuously develop your skills.