Aircraft Engineering Apprentice Review

The first year of the apprenticeship is full time college in Nantgarw where you will be taught basic hand skills as well as how to operate machines such as a pillar drill, lathe etc. You will also take part in class room lessons such as gas turbine engines, first line maintenance, comms for engineering, maths etc and complete assignments for the different units. In the second year you will be on site 4 days a week and in college for 1 day a week. On site you will be on a rotation visiting different sections every month whilst having to complete your NVQ. The NVQ requires you to fill out multiple question booklets related to work on site. You will also have to write logs about jobs you have completed and cross reference these to 6 checklists until all points have been hit. You must also complete workplace observations where an assessor watches you complete a task and asks you questions about the job to ensure you are doing it right. In college you will continue to learn new subjects and continue completing the assignments for each unit. The third year of the apprenticeship will be full time on site and you will continue to complete your NVQ but in this time you will be given your final home and will no longer be on rotation. On site you will be repairing engine parts, replacing engine parts/ components, cleaning and inspecting engine parts, testing engines in the test beds, striping the engines down and building them back up.

Throughout the apprenticeship I have learnt many hand skills such as drilling, riveting, blending etc. I have also learnt how to measure parts accurately, working within extreme tolerances, how to inspect aircraft components for damage, how to navigate through the engine manual to find information. I have also developed my literacy skills through college as well as gaining a better understanding of gas turbine engines and mechanical principles.

As a whole I enjoy the programme a lot. There are many jobs and tasks on site which are enjoyable such as blending out scratches and damage, riveting, welding, testing engines. The college side of the apprenticeship isnt bad but some of the assignments are very long winded and will require you to put a lot of time and effort into them taking multiple days to finish and can be quite overwhelming when there are multipole due at the same time.

The programme is pretty well structured as you learn basic hand tools and an understanding of gas turbine engines in college before you come on site in the second year which means you are more experienced to work on aircraft engine parts and have more confidence to work on the components which can cost thousands just for 1 part. I do however think that the college side of the apprenticeship is very generic and there are a few units and assignments that are not necessarily relevant to the work that you will be completing on site at GE. However, there is a positive to this if you want to change career in the future as you have qualifications for a wider range of jobs rather than just GE specifically.

You get a lot of support from your employer. In the first year of the apprenticeship the apprentice leader will regularly check on you when you are in college. When on site you have a monthly check in to ask how you are feeling, if there are any issues and will beset targets to complete for next month. If you have any issues at all whether its work related or personal you can speak to your apprentice leader in confidence and they can try to help with your problem. As a GE employee you also have private medical insurance with a £50,000 annual limit which can help you with any health issues providing they are covered by the medical insurance.

When in the college you have a lot of support available to you if you have any personal issues or if you need help with class work or if you dont understand a question in the assignment. All tutors are more than happy to help as long as you dont leave your assignments till the last minute or are submitting assignments past the due date. However, if you are on holiday or have a reason for submitting your assignment late they are generally flexible to a certain extent.

I feel that the qualification through the training provider helps me perform better in my role as they taught me an understanding of gas turbine engines, materials and tools as well as how to operate them correctly which meant when I came on site I knew briefly what certain parts were, their material, their properties and how to operate tools ready for overhaul.

As far as I know there are no extra-curricular activities available. I know that they used to have a rugby team and regularly take part in the Duke of Edinburgh but this was stopped. When you are an apprentice they take you away to do a group activity for a weekend for group bonding which can be something like going North Wales kayaking. I think there should be more opportunities for extra-curricular activities.

Yes

I would recommend GE to a friend because it is a reasonably paid job and it is an exciting job to have. There are lots of different sections and roles on the site so the chances are that you will find somewhere you would like to work that suits you. There are also some benefits you get while being a GE employee such as private medical insurance and hundreds of discounts and cashback available when you buy things such as certain clothing brands, electronics, meals at restaurants, holidays, flights etc.

Learn a bit about the business, practice online mental tests such as spatial awareness, maths, extracting information and mechanical reasoning tests. Also look into the different modules of a gas turbine and the basic principle of how it functions. Apply for work experience on site before applying to see if it is something you would enjoy and take part in a level 3 aerospace engineering course in college if possible which would give you a head start in the apprenticeship and may even allow you to skip the college side of the apprenticeship completely if the course you completed meets the requirements. This can be found out by visiting the apprentice team on site when on work experience or emailing the apprentice team.