Engineering Degree Apprentice Review

My first year role mainly includes first year project (a full product lifecycle STEM project), volunteering at careers events, shadowing and networking with other apprentices and engineers and university work. One day a week we are onsite at Cheltenham Campus, Gloscol completing our Bachelors Degree in Computer and Electronic engineering

The apprenticeship has allowed me to develop presentation and communication skills through volunteering opportunities at STEM and career events, as well as through projects and assisting with work experience. Balancing university work with my job role and additional responsibilities has helped me develop timekeeping and organizational skills, ensuring I meet deadlines.

I very much enjoy the various opportunities to volunteer with STEM events given by background working with children and teenagers at social clubs. There are elements of the Y1 program that give too much flexibility to new members of the business and I would have enjoyed a more structured program post onboarding.

Weeks 1-6 followed a fully scheduled onboarding plan allowing us to get to know fundamentals of the business and other apprentices, graduates and engineers. Post onboarding our time became very flexible and fully up to us to manage, as much as I enjoy being able to plan my own time, at certain points further structure would have benefitted the school leavers within our cohort.

I feel there is good support through the business from other apprentices and graduates in the form of mentors, however for a long period I rarely saw my manager and was unable to speak with her about concerns. There is good support from senior apprentices with university work and project.

There is limited support from gloscol and we are rarely given feedback and marks after exams and portfolio work submitted over 6 months ago. The lectures are mostly good, with excellent theoretical knowledge, however more lab time working hands on with electronics would be beneficial to further developing my understanding.

Currently the electronics and coding knowledge that I am developing through university I greatly helping with our project and with supporting work experience. From September when I begin a rotation in a full project team, I hope I will be able to better relate the knowledge I am learning at university.

Through work I am aware that there are opportunities to join social groups such as sports team. Through Gloscol we are completing a UWE sponsored degree to we have full access to all UWE societies and social groups, however the distance between Cheltenham and Bristol is a restricting factor in joining.

Yes

I very much enjoy the program I am on, the university degree is relevant to the work I am undertaking and the opportunity to assist with STEM and careers events is great as it allows me to develop soft skills and help foster the next generation of engineers and apprentices.

Focus on soft skills and experience just as much as qualifications when applying and going through assessment centers. The community at GE is excellent and are able to offer help and support on any basis, whether with university, rotations or even socially. Your cohort become friends and you end up working together to solve problems and complete work.