Design and development apprentice Review

My role within my team is to design and produce embedded electrical devices which are used to prove concepts we create. As part of the business engineering team I spend time procuring ideas and bidding for funding for future work. I also spend one day each week studying at university.

I have learnt a wide range of new skills through my role. Most important to me, how to work in a professional environment and this is something that can't be taught in a classroom. My greatest skill I have learnt is my software knowledge, coming in with no understanding and now having a high level of ability in many coding languages.

I love what I do on my programme and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to work hard and learn everyday. I get so much fulfilment each day with the work I do and the amount of learning I have the opportunity to do. It was a great career decision for me.

As I am in the first year of intake for this scheme I have found the programme to be far less structured than expected originally. It does allow me to have the freedom to make my own choices about my career and where I want to be at the end of my apprenticeship.

My employer is very supportive with everyone on the scheme, we attend training regularly and are given time to learn and make mistakes whilst designing and creating, which shows to me that they are comfortable with my development and not just focused on there output I provide the company with.

My training provider is quite good at supporting our learning, we have personal tutors which handle our academic queries and scheme advisers which handle the general running of the scheme. We document all the work and training we are provided to demonstrate what we have done over the course of the apprenticeship.

As I am getting an engineering degree to perform an engineering role, my qualification is highly important to me and the employer. It allows me to understand the work I do and help me to apply theoretical knowledge when designing and creating. Without the qualification I am working towards the apprenticeship would be much harder to do.

As I work for a very densely populated company (30,000 employees in on city) there is a huge amount of social activities that I can do. I spend my time socialising with senior members of the engineering department and try to learn as much as I can from the people around me.

Yes

It's an incredible place to learn and to work with public transport gives a real urgency as to the world of work. All the work I do makes improvements to the lives of millions of customers every day. Getting the opportunity to earn a degree without the student debt is worth the apprenticeship alone.

Do your research into the company and know the area of the company you are applying to. Learn the company ethos as every employee has to align themselves with this. Showing genuine passion for learning looks great in any interview and with an apprenticeship this is what you spend your time doing so you need to be enthusiastic.