Electronic Technician Review

My current role is a quality, production and manufacturing engineer. This involves mostly assisting the shop floor with requests and continuous improvement to help streamline the manufacturing process. It also includes many general quality activities, such as reviewing documents and reports, performing internal audits and generating work orders for the shop floor. I am also involved other activities such as cell design using a CAD software package.

There is many opportunities to learn new skills, this is largely helped by the first year of the apprenticeship being spent at a training centre learning Electronics. Following that, a Level 3 diploma in electronics at College and opportunity to complete a HNC. To help with skills required for general day to day working, there is many training courses available. In my role, a skills and competencies spread-sheet is used to track personal development of skills required for the role.

I enjoy the programme very much. It has been very interesting to be able to work in such a large worldwide company in the aerospace and defence sector. I have had opportunities to see and work on cutting edge technology and it is always interesting to see what the company is planning on developing in the future, and there will always be large opportunity to work on new projects.

The programme is very well structured. The time spent at the training centre during the first year was informative while still being entertaining and being good opportunity to get to know the other apprentices on the programme. The second year spent in placements around the site is very helpful to show how to work in different departments of the company and how they all work together to create an effective business. So far, the third year being spent in a single placement has been interesting and informative, while showing me skills I can use as a future employee and showing I can be an asset to the team.

Support is always available should it be required. This includes things such as support in day to day work, everyone is always happy and willing to help if you have any question or require assistance with any activities. The team leader is always eager to help you develop and ensure others are happy with assisting. Other support is always available, including HR, Occupational health and counselling services, should it be required.

During the time spent at the training centre, the training provider was always happy to support in any way that was required when working towards the qualifications, after this at college, some support is given but in my opinion this was sometimes lacking. The college underperformed in many aspects including this, meaning the company now uses alternative training providers for future apprentices.

The qualifications gained at the training centre were very helpful, this included an NVQ in electronics. a large amount of information was taught to us about electronics that still relate to the job now. They also provided other training, such as IPC and manual handling, that still relates to day to day work performed.

There are extra curricular activities that you can get involved with on site, these are advertised on notice boards across site and across an application. There are many wellness events across the year that involve going off site with other employees for different activities. There is also photo competitions and many giveaways from the wellness team, such as a yearly Christmas dinner paid for by the company.

Yes

If you have a large interest in electronics and working in this industry, I would highly suggest BAE systems as a good company to work for, a large amount of training is provided and there is many opportunities for growth in the company after the apprenticeship has ended. After the final year it is highly likely that you will be given a job at the end as you will have become a valuable asset to the team, if not there is always jobs available in different departments across site.

If you are interested in applying here, it is suggested that you have at least a starting knowledge of electronics and mathematics. you are required to do an online test during the application stage and you are required to show a project that shows some kind of electronics knowledge during the interview stage.