Mechanical Design Apprentice Review

Within my apprenticeship at Sellafield Ltd I work within an alliance with 2 other companies. Within this I work in a design team of about 10 people. My role in is a designer. So working with the guidance of my peers, engineers and responsible engineers I produce working designs, risk assessments, calculations, specifications and any other technical documents that are required in design packages.

I have learnt an enormous amount of new skills during my apprenticeship. Predominately, these are engineering techniques but also include interpersonal skills working with customers and different communication skills. I have also developed other skills such as how to manage my time effectively and produce work to a consistent high level.

My program consists of 80% of my time office based and 20% university based. I enjoy this because I have enough time to get stuck into good projects at work and be able to hit targets/ meet deadlines. The 20% of time at university is good because it gives an outlet from the office and gives opportunity to grow my skills set with topics I may not experience directly in my work.

My program consists of 80% of my time office based and 20% university based. This structure works well as it is a good ratio of work that allows me to keep on top of my university work. The structure in work works well as it consists of 2 secondments from my normal place of work as well as various training courses from the company. Allowing me to experience more of my company.

The support I receive from my employer is good. I have 6 monthly reviews with an apprentice assessor that tracks my progress independently. in the office I am surrounded by people who have already completed the apprenticeship and so have expertise and advice to offer. In college I am support by my tutors well and they also have an independent assessor to help me with linking it to work and my experiences.

The support from my training provider is good. They offer support sessions on a Monday and make them selves available via email/telephone. However, the support sessions are within office hours and so sometimes it is impractical to make them. The VLE provided by the trainer is also very useful to catch up on notes and revise from.

The qualification provided by my training provider helps me in my engineering role, especially with the calculations and maths within my role. It also helps me understand the project side of my job too. This is something that I do not do in my role, but I see it happen within the project I am involved with. Understanding why/ how it is done helps me in my role.

Within my company there is various extra-curricular activities to get involved in such as team building residential to the apprentice council team. My company is also a big promoter of STEM and so we are encouraged to get involved with these events. There is even charity sports events that happen occasionally that are good to get involved in.

Yes

My company has provided me with lots of professional development opportunities as well as greatly increasing my core engineering skills. Outside of the office there is plenty of other stuff to get involved in. The company surround you with people who can support and there is lots of interesting work going ahead.

Do your research, look at what the company does. Be out going, don't just sit behind a desk, there is plenty of opportunities waiting to be taken. I would also advise looking at the different schemes and asking yourself what do YOU want from the apprenticeship. Overall, it is good to work for.