Associate Design Engineer Review

My role as an apprentice was originally a welder, but I moved into design services where I spent most of time completing survey and alignment tasks for ships. This would involve monitoring movement as well as structural surveys. I also do design work with softwares such as AutoCAD and Inventor

I learnt many skills early on in my apprenticeship for my bench fitting work. This included using hacksaws, drills and files to create jobs. I also learnt how to use machinery for manufacturing. This included a drill press, vertical band saw, milling machine and lathe. Other skills I developed where using software's for design.

I enjoyed learning new skills and working with people as part of a team. Some areas of the business are a lot more enjoyable than others. I was lucky enough to work in some really good areas. Parts I didn't enjoy where spending large amounts of time with little to do

Initially, organisation was very poor and we had a lot of issues. After a change of management, the structure and organisation improved greatly. Placement rotations have improved a lot but some areas still require work. The qualifications have also changed in recent years making it more difficult to organise as everything was new.

The company is great for supporting the employees. It provides many assistant programmes for areas in and outside of work. These areas are things such as mental health, stress, finances and so on. The company also supports people who work within first aid teams/military reserves. I personally have not used this support but have heard good things.

We received great support from our training provider when working towards our BTEC qualification. They did their very best to ensure we got the level of qualification we were aiming for. They also supported is with helpful advice and guidance on how to succeed within the business. They also provided 1 to 1 help when required.

I believe the qualification we received gave us a baseline understanding of engineering and allowed us to progress from there. We learnt practical skills as well as important academic work within this. Learning things like health and safety were highly important in making sure we had the right attitude around work.

There are a few charity football matches that were played throughout my time in the apprenticeship. I took part in these. Other activities include extra curricular challenges and tasks for schools and colleges. One challenge I took part in involved welding a go kart frame together for a local college.

Yes

I would recommend BAE Systems to a friend as it is a large company with a great reputation and delivers a good quality apprenticeship. The apprenticeship itself looks great on CV and other employers look up to the standard. There is also many different opportunities available within the company to progress.

To choose the correct apprenticeship for you. There are multiple levels of apprenticeship which involve vastly different roles. I would also advise taking extra opportunities if they arise. Another piece of advice I would give is to use the pension and shares schemes as soon as you can as they are very good.