Engineering Management Apprentice Review

Day to day you will oversee the engineering management of equipment that is used by the UK military and support this equipment by providing engineering support to the Front Line Commands (RAF, Navy and Army). This involves technical decision making to resolve in-service issues, managing the certification of the equipment via the appropriate regulator, providing up to date advice and equipment documentation for the operators and maintainers and most importantly managing the safety of the equipment to ensure risk to life is as low as reasonably practicable.

I have learnt new time management and organisational skills, as the work can be fast paced at times to ensure the company responds effectively to address the customers needs. I have also developed my technical decision making skills as I make decisions on how to resolve technical issues with the equipment with the support of my management team.

I enjoy my programme very much as it allows me to work with cutting edge technology that is being used by the UK military. Not everybody will have the chance to work closely with the military and visit military bases and see equipment in person, but this apprenticeship has allowed me to do this and even get hands on with an aircraft!

The programme is fairly well organised as you spend approximately the first year of the 3 year apprenticeship at college full time, before moving on to day release in year 2 and block release in year 3 when studying for your HNC. The college provides you with enough time to get the studying done alongside work, who are also very accommodating to your needs. The apprenticeship programme features work rotations throughout 4 different teams during your time with the company and these transitions between teams are managed well.

My employer supports me a lot as we have dedicated engineering apprenticeship managers who can deal with all of our queries and questions on the apprenticeship. They also help to guide us through the apprenticeship as if our work placement is not addressing our training requirements, they will move us to a team where we can gain this experience. They also provide us with several study days a year.

Support from the training provider is varied, but generally good. For the HNC, the tutors and course leaders are very helpful and will take time to explain things in more depth if you are struggling, they will even set time aside to respond to your emails if you are not at college and need help with an assignment. During COVID the transition from classroom based learning to online was seamless and worked very very well. The only issue I have had is with the NVQ assessors as there was a lack of resource in the college. They would be slow to respond to my queries and would take several weeks to mark my work. However this improved over the course of the apprenticeship.

I feel that my qualification helps me to understand the underpinning engineering knowledge required to perform my job. These engineering principles are useful to understand when working with the equipment, but they are generalised. Therefore depending on what team and specialism you fall into, further in depth learning is needed to fully understand the concepts being used in your role.

There are many extra-curricular activities to get involved in at DE&S through the Civil Service Sports Club. Through the CSSC, for a low cost per month you have access to the on-site gym and sports facilities. They also run large events for a variety of sports like football, which aims to get everyone involved no matter your skill level. There are also several sports teams on site, which often have a game against each other at lunch time.

Yes

The job is varied which means you are unlikely to get bored as there are multiple Air, Maritime and Land platforms to work for, which all offer unique experiences in terms of the work you will get up to. There are also multiple benefits you get from working at DE&S such as home-working, flexible working patterns and a great pension.

One piece of advice I would give to others applying for Defence Equipment & Support is to not be afraid and submit your application. The job is so varied that if you are the type of person to get bored after a couple of years in a role, then you can easily switch between teams and roles and there is sure to be something you will like. Also if you go through any training programmes, work hard on your qualifications as it will help future career development as you can prove that you should get funding for a sponsored degree as you are able to learn to a high standard.