Rating

6.9/10
  • 1. Please give an overview of your role and what this involves on a day-to-day basis:
  • I am an Electrical Engineering apprentice in the Environmental sciences department of DSTL. I am currently in my first year so am doing my training at Qinetiq Apprentice training school (QATS), Boscombe Down. We do a micture of classroom learning and workshop/Electrical workshop activities.

    7/10

  • 2. Have you learnt any new skills or developed existing skills?
  • Since we do quite a lot of workshop activities, I feel i have much better hand skills than when I started and better attention to detail.

    7/10

  • 3. To what extent do you enjoy your programme?
  • I enjoy it very much as a lot of the time we are learning things relevant to what we will be doing after the apprenticeship. The work DSTL do is very interesting and extremely important so it makes it more enjoytable knowing that I will eventually be working on these projects.

    8/10

  • 4. How valued do you feel by Dstl?
  • I do feel vewry valued by DSTL as they are in constant communication with us whilst we are at QINETIQ and come and have meetings with us.

    7/10

  • 5. How well organised/structured is your programme?
  • Because we are part of DSTL, but do our training at QINETIQ, we had two separate inductions which combined took about 3 weeks. Straight after, we were satraight in to the learning which we get a timetable for, and is very well structured- we even get to do sport on a wednesday afternoon.

    7/10

  • 6a. How much support do you receive from your training provider?
  • We have monthly one on one meetings with our tutor . In these talks we get to go through what has gone well, and what I need to improve on.

    6/10

  • 6b. How much support do you receive from your employer?
  • We receive a good amount of support as we can always conmtact them if we have any problems

    8/10

  • 7. How well does your salary/package meet your costs?
  • The salary is enough to cover all costs (as a student) so long as you don't go on a spending spree too much and our reasonably sensible with money. The pay does compare well with other apprenticeships though.

    7/10

  • 8. Are there many opportunities outside of work?
  • There is an on site gym and other sports facilities, so you are well catered for in the respect. I am not aware of many voluntary activities, or events DSTL gets involved with yet, however I haven't been here long so that would probably be why.

    5/10

  • 9. Would you recommend Dstl to a friend?
  • Yes


  • 9b. Why?
  • Interesting and exciting work, unique place to work, and within a militiary/government atmosphere so very different to working in your average company.


  • 10. What tips or advice would you give to others applying to Dstl?
  • Definately look in to DSTL, do your research. The interview is quite long, however was quite relaxed and was made as informal as possible, whilst covering neccessary interview questions so just prepare and do your research.


Details

Level 3 Apprenticeship

Engineering

South West

October 2014


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