Apprentice Telephone Engineer Review

My role is to repair, install and maintain phone lines for customers of any service provider. Every day I get different jobs to do which makes it more exciting, and I get to work in a lot of different areas too. One day I could be climbing a pole to look for a disconnection in a pair of wires, and the next day running wiring through a customer's house.

I have learnt plenty of new skills so far. Before becoming an Openreach engineer I had no experience with anything hands on, I only worked in retail and office work before I joined this job. Being on the job for several months I already feel confident in safely using a hammer, finding problems on a phone line and also climbing a pole.

Overall, I do enjoy my programme a lot. Some days can definitely be better than others however. The weather plays a big part in my job, when it's nice and sunny the job is much more enjoyable, and when it's cold and raining it's not as fun however I do enjoy it a lot.

I believe the programme is fairly well organised. The training could have been more in depth at the beginning, and more realistic to what the job is actually like for example. We have to complete an NVQ which we get one day a month just to do it, I feel like we could get more days like that in order to complete it to the best of our ability.

I receive a lot of support, whether it's my manager, my patch lead or the many coaches they have to support me. On things I have struggled on, my manager has noticed this and always got somebody out with me to try and give me a hand and teach me new things.

I think I receive quite a bit of support when working towards my qualification. By the end of the year we must complete our NVQ in order to progress in our job, therefore once a month we have an absence booked to meet with our assessor and other colleagues to complete it, as well as in our free time.

Personally I don't see how the qualification we have to complete can help us perform better in our role. The qualification doesn't involve engineering, such as putting up wires from a telephone pole to a house, or nailing a cable neatly onto a customer's house. The qualification is revolved heavily around technology that we don't use in our job.

There aren't many extra-curricular activities to get involved in as far as I'm aware. I do know there are events that take places throughout the year to network and meet different people in the company, however that's about it. I would have liked there to be more events.

Yes

It's kind of like being your own boss in a way, which is one thing I love about the job. Every day I have to make decisions such as which jobs to go to first, when to take my lunch, and in a way when I go home! It is a good job with very good benefits.

If you were to apply for Openreach, I would advise you to just relax. The training is very long and can be tiring, especially if you are not near home like I wasn't. When you finish the training and go out by yourself being an engineer, managers don't expect you to start completing loads of jobs every day, they just like to see progress over time however everyone goes at a different pace, so just relax!