Mechanical Apprentice Review

The primary role I fill in this apprenticeship is to support the teams I am put on placement with so that the jobs they perform are completed can be done faster, and also to get hands-on experience with the jobs that these different teams perform. This allows me to fulfill a role as a full-time employee after the end of my apprenticeship.

The new skills I have learned amount to navigation onboard naval vessels, handling and hygiene of hydraulic and air systems, removing difficult fasteners and pipework, general experience in a workplace, and increased confidence in my life more generally. In the first part of the apprenticeship, skills on machining and hand-manufacturing were a large part of my training.

One of the greater aspects of the enjoyment of my programme is the satisfied curiosity of the functioning of systems and navigation onboard ships, and with ships systems and the mechanical machinery that supports it. Also the machining skills and the maintenance, operation, and survey that is done on the dockside.

The program that I am on is heavily planned and structured to a fine point for the first year, and for the second year onwards, there is a fixed plan for theory lessons at the training center, but a less rigid plan for the practical work as we are put in various sections on a (sometimes changing) rotor.

My ADM (apprenticeship development manager) is always available to contact by text, phone, or email during working hours to discuss issues or to ask questions or talk about the programme. At the training center, we are supported by our primary tutor, who can forward issues that they cannot resolve themselves to a higher poer within the department.

The tutors at the training provider are very attentive to feedback, and if we (as a class of apprentices) provide useful feedback or request for assistance, then the tutors are very happy to assist or consider changed to their method of work and lesson plans. The tutors even email us each day's work plan if we phone in sick to keep us up to date.

The machining part of the qualification provides great assistance to the understanding of how the manufacturing process affects the fit and installation of different systems. It also helps us to understand the way many systems onboard ship operate (identifying valves by type) and how they work and how they can fail.

At the end of the first year of the apprenticeship programme, there is a week of community service style work which is used as teambuilding and building company relations with the public. This is followed by a week of hiking and camping on the local national park before we begin placement work in full.

Yes

The company culture is very relaxed and for the most part welcoming and even nostalgic of apprentices (most people working there were once apprentices themselves). The pay is above median for the region and few other companies deal with navy marine engineering or even this large of a scale marine engineering at all.

The most important one would be to always appear interested in what is being done. The people working at the company have a lot of experience and are usually very keen to pass knowledge on, but only as long as the apprentice seems willing to take on that knowledge themselves.