Electrical Maintenance Review

My role is an electrical maintainer, this means gaining an understanding on electrical equipment and how to overcome problems that may occur! Such as fault finding etc! As a second year apprentice we are continuing to build our knowledge and to gain as much hands on experience before we leave the academy into the big world of site! We are trained professionally before our out turn test!

When I first started I didn’t know how to wire a plug. I now know how to wire up a legacy contactor, a three phase motor, emergency lighting. If you want to gain or expand on your electrical skills then an apprenticeship with AWE is the right path for you.

I think what makes my programme so good is the instructors and my work colleagues. It’s such a nice environment in the academy that you get time to become friendly with the people that you’ll be working with for the next 2 years. You get to build that bond with your instructor and you can gain confidence in not only going out and completing your apprenticeship but confidence in people and life skills also!

The academy is facing a lot of training courses year to year to keep apprentices up to date with first aid or ethics training and IT equipment training! Yes you will come out of the apprenticeship with your qualifications but you’ll also come out with training and life skills. This is all organised very well and is structured to fit around your learning time as an apprentice. Overall many away days and trips out are also organised and structured well, this benefits you massively.

Support is there from not only your line manager but welfare officers aswell! If you have a problem use the chain of management to sit down and talk about it, they are more than happy to have a chat. If you don’t want to bring it up to a certain person, move up the chain and speak to someone according the problem you have! Personally from my experience I’ve always seen a welfare person present who has their door open and are easy to talk to. Also with there being 1st and 2nd years in the workshop if you need help with a task from your line manager there’s 2 people to talk to instead of 1 for a basic understanding of the task you are on.

For our qualifications (such as college) we personally have good communication from the college to our workplace. This helps massively when working towards our qualifications as communication is key in getting things done! Support in colleges is also there too, if you can’t find it with one teacher move onto the next as the college departments are massive and there is enough employed staff to speak to and support you.

Being a level 3 apprentice, I feel that our training provider helps us with the theory side of things 1 day a week so we can get on with our practical whenever we get back to our place of work. This also helps massively because college have the perfect facilities for theory and our workplace have the perfect facilities for practical. Overall it is 30% theory and 60% practical. With this theory help from our training provider, I believe that this helps us perform better in our role in the workplace!

At the start of your apprenticeship you will have the opportunity to join up with the local gym and sports hut for a reduced apprentice rate! This is really beneficial as it is 1 minute off site and very cheap to sign up! There is also a committee that plans days out such as paint balling which is very fun or air soft! We also have Christmas lunches, this is a great time to socialise with other trades as-well as your own!

Yes

Because it is such a great company to work for! It is one of the best apprenticeship schemes in the country and the amount of trades you can choose is countless! There is definitely an apprenticeship here for everyone! If you’re looking into the longer term, AWE has a fantastic pension for each and every employee!

Try your hardest from stage 1. Stage 1 is all computer based questionnaires to see if you are the right candidate! Once you have been selected to have an interview think of this as you’ve been selected out of thousands who have tried to apply because not many get to the interview stage! Have confidence in yourself and make sure your CV is in good order! Once your interview is over you should be called back for a second time to let your inner team working spirits shine! If overall you don’t get picked even for an interview maybe the time is not right but you should always try and try again!