Apprentice engineer Review

The role ranges on what it involves. It varies from training to receive the A license qualification through certified exams, to working on the job within the different areas of British Airways maintenance whether this be in the line environment or in the hangar environment. Apprentices work closely with other engineers to complete tasks and gain experience in aircraft engineering.

Through my time at British Airways I have developed my basic hand skills to suit my job role better to help me become a better engineer whilst also improving my knowledge on aircraft to acquire the qualifications necessary to have a career in engineering. I have also learnt about the practices and procedures that go into day to day maintenance within the aircraft engineering environments.

The program is enjoyable as you get to work side by side with qualified engineers in live environments. This means you get a good overview of what it is to work as an engineer and get a good level of training from doing the jobs you'll do on a day to day basis when working after graduation.

The apprenticeship is structured to provide good training to the apprentices as they move throughout the company. This is done by using staff in areas to mentor and teach the apprentices whilst also allowing for time to be sent on courses to further the basic knowledge and gain license qualifications.

The employer tries to support apprentices by giving easy ways to contact the apprenticeship team whilst also arranging to have meetings at varied intervals to ensure they are staying on track and to allow apprentices to talk to the managers about how they are finding their time within the company.

The training provider gives us work to be completed for the NVQ section of the apprenticeship. This work is regularly assessed in meetings with a specific instructor who checks the work over before accepting it to ensure it is correct and is in the right state to be sent off at the completion of the apprenticeship to gain a level 3 qualification.

My qualification allows me to perform better in my role as it allows me to become a technician within the company after graduating which opens up the amount of potential work I can do due to being a certifying stamp holder. I can work better in my role through the training knowledge provided for acquiring the license as well.

The company has many outside of work activities often going on through the charity work it does with flying start. They cover many different things from skydiving to fundraisers. Social activities depend on the people within an area as many areas will meet up outside of work for meals and a chance to see eachother outside of the work environment.

Yes

It's a good company to work for with a strong name. The work itself is often varied and interesting and the training program is now under good management who are working hard to develop it and expand the operations of the apprenticeship further. The likelihood of a full time job after the apprenticeship is also quite high which is good for career prospects.

The company is a large scale business and works well to find apprentices different job roles throughout their rotation so it is important to make sure you are flexible on your working placements to ensure the full range of potential skills can be learnt which also includes times due to some areas only working night shifts.