Degree Apprentice Review

Supporting vehicles as they are being developed in both a prototype environment and in a manufacturing environment. Support a wide array of different departments from basic support to more involved vehicle diagnostics with specialist hardware not available to the rest of the business. Writing Python scripts to support the role to minimise workload on ourselves is the current aim.

Learnt a wide plethora of skills when dealing with vehicles however existing knowledge was already significant in the networking area which while not directly relatable the principles involved can be carried across. In regards to skills delivered by the apprentice team and learning provider there has been not a single piece of relevant learning taught. The apprenticeship education side of the apprenticeship could be removed in its entirety and you would not know the difference.

Enjoy the job role immensely, always seeing different things and getting to work with different people, applying different skills and learning a great deal. In regards to the apprenticeship portion through the learning provider would score much lower, boring irrelevant subjects are taught. While there are some keen lecturers a lot look like they wish they could be anywhere else but teaching you. Assignments and exams take up a significant portion of time, fortunately my manager allows for time to do these during the working week but this is not a given.

Poorly organised. Poorly structured. A chain of command that does not seem to follow through. No communication between people. Ideas are presented to the team and are ignored despite promises of actions happening. In regards to uni lecturers do not know when their own assignments are in for, days are long and unnecessarily long.

From my manager in my department a great deal of support. Unfortunately any interaction with the apprentice team provided by the company has been incredibly poor. Staff are rude, knowledgeable and condescending. It is difficult to want to remain in a company that treats you this way. While support by my department manager is great unfortunately the poorly coordinated apprentice team can rule over their decisions.

A personal tutor is assigned by the University. Unfortunately the University also make attendance to their sessions compulsory and more often than not schedule them for the end of an already long day. All material is provided online as well as lecture capture videos that can be played back at your own leisure.

The qualification in regards to my role is entirely pointless, as it is for much of the rest of the organisation. Unfortunately our business operates on the mindset of a degree is a must to progress, despite the work produced by members of staff that have attended university and received a degree often being to a worse standard with less effort provided by them due to their "elitist" stance. None of the roles available to apprentices benefit from the University portion of the course, onsite training at work that is actually applicable to the role has been far more useful.

Yes, there are often meetings scheduled and events held by the apprentice and graduate forum to get together to go out. There are also events available during the workday to meet the senior suite of managers and discuss issues and what not to raise the issues past the apprentice team who often brush issues aside.

Yes

I would recommend Jaguar Land Rover to a friend. I would not ever recommend the Jaguar Land Rover apprenticeship to a friend. The work environment and people you get to meet are great, always learning new things and getting the ability to develop skills. The apprenticeship is a poorly run and outdated system that needs to be redesigned from the ground up with a much heavier emphasis on skills that will apply to the job and not a random assortment of modules they have currently selected.

It seems to be pot luck on who gets into the apprenticeship. There are some considerably skilled people who have joined the workforce through the apprenticeship which you later find out where initially put on a "waiting list" to see if others would drop out as they did not pass the first selection. Then there are others who got in without a second question however their attitude and the work they produce is appalling so it is unknown how they did this.