Trainee Engineer Review

Every day is very different, I am required to install or repair telephone and broadband lines in rural or urban locations. Some jobs are quite complex and require extensive planning and other resources such as chasing a faulty line in a rural location whereas other jobs can be relatively straight forward such as upgrading a customer to FTTC broadband.

I have learnt lots of new skills within my role as a trainee telecoms engineer such as working at height using climbing equipment, working as a lone worker, how to fault and repair broadband lines and install broadband only lines and how to use lots of different tools and equipment which may vary between different job types.

The apprenticeship programme has allowed me to learn plenty of new skills and put them into use in my day to day tasks. I have really enjoyed everything I have learnt and had great discussions with my NVQ assessor. As my assessor has lots of experience as an engineer we have had in-depth conversations regarding the engineering side of things which has helped me improve my skills and knowledge.

The programme was well structured and there was plenty of resources and assessors which I could use to help improve my work. The programme was well structured in terms of how items of work were provided and set out in order to complete them to the best of my ability.

There was plenty of support during my apprenticeship from the company and my assessors and there is ongoing support in terms of general care for employees. I had regular calls with my assessor to discuss my work and I could contact them whenever I needed them and they would reply almost immediately.

There was lots of support from my training provider when working towards my qualification, assessors were always available to answer questions and as they had their own experiences of being an engineer they would use personal examples of work in order to help me understand things better. There was also plenty of information available on the apprenticeship platform which would guide me to the information which I required.

The learning that has gone towards my qualification has helped better me as a telecoms engineer. I have learnt lots of new things when writing out methods of work and had great conversations with assessors based off their own experiences which I can apply to my day to day work.

There are plenty of extra-curricular activities in my workplace, due to Covid-19 they have been restricted however I am aware of plenty of charity events I can be involved in, sports teams and other online teams which people can connect through and better their personal and work lives. I am looking forward to learning more about this as Covid-19 restrictions are lifted.

Yes

BT Openreach has been a brilliant place to work, I have had a great opportunity to earn a qualification and work at the same time. The role is varied and interesting and every day and task is different. The people I work with are great and there is a large presence of teamwork in my role which I thoroughly enjoy. The support from team members, patch leads and management has been perfect and there is always opportunities to better my skills and learn more.

Having no experience in telecoms should not put off someone applying to this role, I had no experience and have been put through extensive training which has allowed me to learn lots of new skills and given me great knowledge in the telecoms sector. I am one year into my role and I am learning new things every day and my confidence has grown massively, that's because the company is very welcoming with great management and team members who are always there to help me better my skills and expand my knowledge.