Trainee Engineer Review

Building the telecommunications infrastructure within the area so installing fibre and copper cables into the network ready for colleagues to terminate and provide connections to end users. This involves rodding and roping underground ducts, hand pulling or winching cables in, labelling and storing. Putting out simple signing, lighting and guarding following on site risk assessment

I have learnt new safety process and techniques for accessing the network, the safe use of a winch and implementing this in practice and also regulatory compliance such as signing lighting and guarding to comply with new roads and street works act. Also the utilisation of in house systems for receiving and managing work

The actual on the job work has been very enjoyable, gaining knowledge from my buddies and colleagues and learning more about what is needed to provide telephone and broadband connections to people. The apprenticeship NVQ part has been a challenge personally due to existing experience so didn’t always keep me engaged

Parts of the programme are really well organised like the initial on boarding and training, however the actual buddying stages didn’t seem to have any structure at all and just floated around between people will no real buddying occurring at times although being inquisitive I asked questions which helped but I know some didn’t like

Employer arranged regular team meetings to keep us informed on some subjects and also arranged my NVQ stuffy days where I had a day with our apprenticeship team to work on my portfolio units with someone on hand if we had any questions on a module and helping to get submitted

They provided ten NVQ study days where a member of their team was on hand and were able to answer questions we had on any units for our portfolio and also share experiences amongst other apprentices. They were also available on the phone between sessions if we had any queries

I struggle to see how the NVQ itself helps with doing my day to day role whether this is because of previous experiences and knowledge meaning I wasn’t gaining anything from it or the content I am not sure but suspect a combination of both of these factors in my opinion

I am not aware of any extra curricular activities run that k know of other than occasional team nights out such as Christmas meal. There are external options if we subscribe to someone like the Institute of Telecommunications Professionals but this is a charge to us and external to my employee

Yes

Friendly and supportive environment. No day is the same with new challenges to over come as whilst the principle is the same the routes and network are different and therefore we can work dynamically to ensure customer connections are made. Plenty of support avenue and employee assistance options such as physiotherapist services etc

Be yourself, remember to be personal, keep it simple and non complicated and always think of the customer and whether what we are doing affects them and is for their benefit as they are the bread and butter as without them there would be no us. And never be afraid to ask questions