Apprentice Aircraft Engineer Review
at Babcock International Group
Level 3 Apprenticeship
Engineering
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
Review Submitted: March 2021
Overall Rating
3.8 /5
The Overall Rating is the average of all the ratings given in each category. We take those individual ratings and combine them into one final score!
Overview of Role
Please give an overview of your role and what this involves on a day-to-day basis:
Normal day starts at 7am and finishes at 18:30 with good breaks spread throughout. Friendly environment and overall good place to work.
To what extent do you enjoy your programme?
Skills Development
Have you learnt any new skills or developed existing skills?
Structure and Support
How well organised/structured is your programme?
I feel as though a lot of the NVQ side of the apprenticeship might be poorly managed, and once we had left Resource Group full time the support for NVQ aspects of the apprenticeship were very poorly managed. Some time spent in classrooms with a dedicated couple of weeks for the NVQ UPK questions and other similar aspects of the course would be a great benefit. Instead it feels like we are told the title of the task we're doing, it appears in our inbox and then told to complete it. No deadline, no guidance unless you ask outright and no clear instructions .
How much support do you receive from your employer?
Thankfully, I have had few interactions with the HR team other than initial orientation.
Generally, the company do a lot to support us apprentices and they do a lot to ensure we don't feel as though we are left on our own. Regularly our boss is in the hangar and checks up on us when walking past. On top of this, it's made clear that we can go directly to them if we are ever in need of support at work.
How much support do you receive from your training provider when working towards your qualifications?
Generally, the support when at Resource Group I believe was second to none, but since leaving the support is poor.
How well do you feel that your qualification (through your training provider) helps you to perform better in your role?
I feel as though a lot of the NVQ questions and tasks aren't particularly useful in the workplace as they don't seem relevant at all. It feels as though all of the individual useful parts of the research we do for the NVQ qualifications are covered much more concisely in other areas, such as training in the workshop for PPE to name one example.
Are there extra-curricular activities to get involved in at your work? (For example, any social activities, sports teams, or even professional networking events.)
Other than this, I am unaware of any other social events or teams that happen at Babcock.
Recommendations & Advice
Would you recommend Babcock International Group to a friend?
Why?
I believe that it is a positive place to work in general and there is no blame culture which promotes proper learning from mistakes, and more importantly honesty.