Multiskilled Engineering Technician Review

I carry out work orders/routine maintenance on machinery in the area and any other jobs that crop up along the way such as breakdowns. I attend meetings every now and then to discuss upcoming work, such as shutdown jobs so that I can plan ahead of time. I spend quite a bit of time with other Techs in the area, shadowing them on their work so that I can learn from them and experience jobs I am unable to do on my own.

Yes I have learnt and developed many skills during my apprenticeship. At college I have learnt and built on the basics, the theory behind things and done general tasks such as wiring circuits and stripping gearboxes, skills that I will use at some point in my career. On site, the skills I have learnt are much more tailored to the job, there is a wide variety of skills I have learnt and developed since being here.

As well as getting on the job training, qualifications and a monthly salary, I thoroughly enjoy the work that I do and tasks I undergo at work. The team I work with are all very easy to get along with and they have time for you to explain things and help you with any issue you may have.

The structure of my apprenticeship programme is excellent, it works out as a four year apprenticeship that consists of a full first year at college, then the rest on site with day release to college. Your second and third year on site consist of 4 rotations, experiencing a new area every 6 months to give you a taste of 4 different areas throughout your apprenticeship so that when it comes to the fourth and final year you can decide on the area that suited you best to act as a landing role.

I receive a great amount of support from my employer, having regular meetings with both my apprentice manager and team manager to discuss my progress in the workplace. I am kept busy with challenging jobs so that I am always learning, however I've always got a helping hand available if I need it.

I have regular meetings with my NVQ assessor to discuss how I am getting on with UPK and job writeups. She makes time to visit the site so that we can meet with her, not only to go through work progress, but also if there's any worries or queries we have for her.

The qualification I receive from SWDT College I personally feel like has helped me a lot so far with my apprenticeship when linking it to site. Things I have done at college have also crossed paths with being on site also, such as pneumatic control, PLC wiring and so on.

At GSK there is more than enough activities to take part and join in with, whether that is during or out of work time. Often, there are opportunities such as job swaps during work, and outside of work there is activities and clubs, such as the gym, boxing classes and so on.

Yes

GSK is a great place to work, you are taken care of and have a large range of benefits available to you. You receive an annual bonus, brilliant qualifications through your apprenticeship, there is the pension and shares scheme and it is a great asset to have on your CV, whether you stay after you have come out of your time or not.

When applying, I put a lot of effort into ensuring that I took time with what I was writing in my CV, ensuring it was concise so that whoever read it didn't get bored reading it. When I came on site for my interview I wanted to make sure they saw the real me, I did this by being my usual polite and chatty self.