mechanical engineer Review

My job roles is the mechanical maintenance of a top tier CoMAH site, this means that we are involved in the basic maintanence of a range of components to the plants which are included in the site. The day to day basis is usually performing Routine preventative maintenance procedures to ensure the smooth running of the site, occasionally we will see none routine maintanence and then we are required to deal with tasks in a safe and efficient manner.

During the apprenticeship I have developed a range of skills which were both pre exisiting and new. Pre exisiting skills like my communications, working within a team, and proffessional conduct have been developed due to the nature of the enviroment. New skills such are spanner work, dealing with different hazards, and the correct way of risk assessing tasks which you are going to be involved in.

I enjoy the programme massively as there is always somethign different to be involved with. When problems occur on plant we will repair it to the standard which is there, then we can plan and develop and project to improve it and prevent the problem for happening again. this range of work makes each day different and interesting.

The program is very well organised, we get clear defnined goals for day one and provided with the appropriate resources to help us get there. They provide us with a study room which can allow up to 8 apprentices to study at anytime, ontop of this we have 6 weekly review to allow the managers to keep track of our progress.

The support is excellent from our employer, they have a plan of placements which we will complete as an apprentice which allows us to experiance 6 months on a range of plants. This is ideal giving us exposure to different plants and tasks which are performed, this also prepares us as we can be placed on any of these plants.

A reasonable amount, they perform there onsite reviews for our NVQ and are willing to come out onto plant to see the style of work which we are completing. The types of assesors which we have arent from this style of industry so dont necissarily have a full appreciation for the tasks we are writing about.

The maths has been very useful, this is just for simple tasks such as calculating loads, forces which are beign applied and general work out on plant, some areas of the course were based on machining which hasnt been very useful, however it has been interesting to understand how components are made.

There are a rang eof extra curricular activies which we are able to get involved with. the site are very involved in the local community, most recently the site planned for volunteers to walk from our site litter picking all the way to the centre of town, as support the site got the people involved some food and drink at the end.

Yes

It is a very god community to work within, if you are willing to work everyone is willing to help you. The site motto is jobs in 50 years, and as some people i work with have been here 40 years, there is every chance we could be here then

Syngenta aren't expecting you to be a perfect engineer from the offset, they want people who want to learna nd are interested. Throughout the course of your apprenticeship is where you learn, the best way to apply is to get involved with the open day and express your interest.