Electrical Engineer Review

Hours are 08:00 to 16:45 Mon-Thu with a 1:00 finish on a Friday. You must not turn up at 8:06 or you will be placed onto the lateness improvement scheme. When finishing for the day the tutor will hold you in the room and watch the clock until 16:45 exactly. You must not leave even a minute earlier nor may you stay behind. While in workshops you have a LOT of paperwork which must be completed and repeated several times to satisfy the assessors. The work itself can be completed in a day or two, but it may be dragged out over the full 3 weeks anyway. Once the assessment is complete you will be expected to make sure your Underpinning Knowledge (UPK) questions are complete. These are a series of approx. 30 100+ word answers per module. While in classrooms the content is decently challenging, but most tutors will not offer much support unless you have a good working relationship with them. This means that the assessments you are given are sometimes based on something you have never seen before. This may not be an issue depending on the person marking as there seems to not be a solid strategy by the college for how to do that. Some tutors will ask you a single question the give a random grade and some will give you detailed feedback with comments everywhere.

With the classroom based work I have learned a few new bits here and there from tutors. Most of what I learned is based on research for assignments, though. In the workshop there isn't a whole lot to learn on the assignment, but as someone without much of an automotive background it has been great to speak to the staff. At the moment, the workshop staff are helpful and knowledgeable about the industry and you can learn a lot if you ask questions. One problem is that there isn't much of a focus on electric vehicles or future tech at all. You will probably learn more about technology that went out of use 10-20 years ago

I enjoy the people and I feel it is a step up from what I used to do. There is also a certain sense of pride that comes with working for Jaguar Land Rover, so that's nice! Enjoyment day-to-day really depends. The full-time college is just like being back at school again but with longer hours so if you like that then great. I personally enjoy it about as much as I would any job.

There is some vague structure of which years we will be at college and which at uni, but it has never been clear what we are actually doing. In college for example, we only found out about the lessons we would be doing once we had the timetable. This timetable extends only a few weeks into the future and as such you will have no idea what modules you are doing until you do them. The best thing to do is to ask several times until someone gives you an answer that sounds right. Timetables are often incorrect and there have been times where classes of degree (19-30 year olds) and advanced (16-17 year olds) apprentices are combined. The result is that not a whole lot gets done and the tutor's plan gets disrupted. You will not be able to leave the room for independent study to alleviate this as everyone must be supervised, no matter how old you are. The block system in place at the moment allows for vast amounts of time (2 weeks straight sometimes) where there is no work to do. In these times you can sometimes get ahead and do future assignments before they are set if you wish, but you need to do that without support. Consequently, not enough of the time is devoted to classroom work. Exam timings are awkward. Some classes will get weeks more of preparation time and some might be out of classrooms for 2 months before they do an exam on the first day back. Structure during the day is a little annoying if you are used to normal working hours. There will be approximately 1.5-2 hours of breaktimes/downtimes throughout the day. You are not allowed to work through these

JLR themselves are actually great! I know that I can go to my actual manager and they'll support me. Once you're dealing with proper employees and not just the college, things are great. This is echoed by many of the past apprentices who have said "Just get through the first year at college". Regarding sick pay, occupational health and whatnot, JLR are also great. They're really there to help if you want them.

There is very little support from the college unless you search for it. You can get decent amounts of help in maths, but sometimes a tutor just won't be teaching in a way you understand. I recommend using Youtube, Khan Academy or other online resources. They are very helpful in the workshops, but you don't need it given the level of the content and the fact that it is just paperwork.

I can't really comment on this too well. Perhaps the fact that I have had a chance to brush up on my maths is helpful, but otherwise I don't have a defined role yet. Overall the college is just an extra tacked on bit that makes it an engineering apprenticeship. The qualifications may only help you with some background about cars.

Not that I know of really. College does not do anything extra unless you organise it yourself, but even then you might as well just ignore the college. There seems to be some potential for corporate social responsibility event attendance, but not a lot. Potential for networking will likely come in later years.

Yes

Despite the issues with the college and the apprenticeship, it's still quite nice to work for Jaguar Land Rover as a company and there is definitely progression there if you want it. The apprenticeship is a great in-road to the company where you might not have the qualifications otherwise.

Know your stuff. If they ask you to come in with a presentation to the interview then spent a good amount of time on that and really *know* it. They'll appreciate if you can speak to them on their own level and discuss some of the real problems the industry is facing at the moment. Other than that, take it as you should any interview. You are interviewing THEM too. Ask them questions about what you should expect and what it's like to work here. Make sure it's something you'll enjoy and you'll have a great time.