trainee engineer Review

i am a trainee engineer employed by openreach and my day to day role is always different as one day i could be just working at green cabinets(pcps) and then next day i could be doing provide or repair work on customers lines majority of the work is outside but some is also inside.

since coming from an office background from the last 10 years i have learnt a lot in the time i have been employee with openreach, they had provided me with 12 full weeks of training which was very in depth and i learnt alot, 8 weeks of the training is with a trainer at a learning school and then the other 4 weeks is being buddied up with a qualifed engineer.

i believe its a very good programme to get into if given the chance like i was, you learn a lot and the skills you do learn you can take away and use for normal life, its very knowledgeable learning about the different type of technology a simple phone line or broadband connection use.

i believe it is vey structed and organised as you have all your training booked in already and receive confirmation of all dates and accommodation is provided if needed. you get 10 study days throughout the year of your apprenticeship and there is a lot of support offered from everyone in the organisation.

in my job you are basically like your own boss in a way but if you need an guidance or support from a patch lead or patch manager they are always there on the end of the phone and have never had an issue with asking for help if needed.

in the apprenticeship programme you are allocated and NVQ assessor who you would send all your evidence to for it to be marked and also have 1 day a month with them going over certain units etc, i feel very supported from my assessor as he gives me the guidance i need on my coursework to get it up to standard

i feel that doing this qualification and the job helps me to perform much better as with all then learning and coursework it gives you more of an in depth understanding or how certain parks of the network work and where to find faults and fix parts of the network easier

due to COVID restrictions and the pandemic we are currently in i am not able to mix with other engineers that much outside of work but i do socialise talking to them over the work phone with queries i have about jobs or when i see them at telephone exchanges.

Yes

great company to work for, training programme is great, learnt so much coming from an office background from present and has taught me a lot since joining and now i can saying i am much more confident doing what i do, also perks are not so bad and great stuff for health and wellbeing

the best advice i could give is don't be over qualified when applying as you will find openreach like to train you there own way, be yourself be confident and take pride in what you do as company image is also another important factor to the openreach company. a