Maintenance Technician Apprentice Review

Within my second year, our day-to-day roles involve shadowing qualified engineers throughout the day: during breakdowns, faults and PMs; in conjunction with this we complete logbooks and TPDs to document our gained knowledge and understanding of each technology and our overall roles.

I have learnt many new skills throughout my apprenticeship, which have been developed and tested through out my time within the technologies. One of the most important skills that I have learnt, and that is still being improved is the approach to a breakdown situation; how to identify the route cause, how to rectify the issue etc, in quick succession of its presence.

I enjoy my time within the technologies and find that the skills and knowledge learnt from qualified engineers is invaluable to what you would learn in a classroom environment.

BMW side is well structured with rotations and structure being decided early on allowing for apprentices to have a competent understanding of what is to come. BMETs organisation could be improved, with deadlines being set and not changed, and work being correctly communicated to apprentices.

There is constant support from BMW, both in regard to personal issues and work-related issues, with the constant emphasis of being comfortable to go to our managers, placement managers and mentors if we require help.

The support is varied from our training provider, with our onsite tutor being extremely supportive- always happy to give up his time to help us get a better understanding of what he is teaching, and will always make time for you. However, it would have been (if we needed support), extremely difficult to acquire this support from our tutors who were tutoring us online, getting into contact with them would have been particularly troublesome and at times unachievable.

Maths and mechanical/engineering principles have been particularly beneficial to our performance within the technologies as they go hand-in-hand with one another and help to better our understanding

There are social activities that one can choose to take part in on a bi-weekly basis (MINI socials), which allows apprentices to network between year groups and also with Interns. Social activities such as trips to Glasgow or sporting events are regular occurrences. In conjunction with that of the extra curricular activities provided by BMW (Cowley Road Carnival, Charity events etc)

Yes

It is a great company to work for with an abundance of benefits, and opens up many different potential pathways in one's career, with exciting opportunities and continued support throughout.

Communicate all the experience that you have had, show interest in the company itself, its history, the history of the plant you're applying for, have a solid understanding of the job role you are applying for