Civil Engineer Apprentice Review

Item: Civil Engineer Apprentice at City of Wolverhampton Council
Rating: 3
Author: Anonymous

at City of Wolverhampton Council

Degree Apprenticeship

Civil Engineering

Wolverhampton

Review Submitted: April 2025

Overall Rating

3 /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!

3/5 - Overview of Role

3/5 - Skills Development

2.8/5 - Structure and Support

Overview of Role

Please give an overview of your role and what this involves on a day-to-day basis:

3/5

My role involves assisting the four Black Country local authorities in delivering cross-boundary transport schemes. I am assigned on multiple transport projects, helping with design/promotion/planning/delivery. My role also involves going to site and performing the tasks of an engineer. I go to university once a week.

To what extent do you enjoy your programme?

3/5

I enjoy it a lot mainly due to the people. The programme definitely isn't perfect, you will do a lot of strategy and project management rather than technical engineering and sometimes the support system isn't in place as we don't have any senior engineers.

Skills Development

Have you learnt any new skills or developed existing skills?

3/5

I have developed my communication, leadership, organisation skills. I have developed skills in AutoCAD, health and safety and site supervision.

Structure and Support

How well organised/structured is your programme?

2/5

There is definetly room for improvement, certain aspects of the apprenticeship such as the professional qualification is not very clearly defined and explained, when first arriving there, they didn't have me assigned on a formal project, so I was floating around doing nothing for a while. Bear in mind this is the first year this apprenticeship has been ran though,

How much support do you receive from your employer?

3/5

I receieve a lot of support from both apprenticeship team and those within my team regarding general problems. However I feel there isn't that much support technically due to the lack of senior engineers.

How much support do you receive from your training provider when working towards your qualifications?

4/5

The support from the training provider is there, you will regularly have the chance to speak to lecturers and be assigned a skills coach who will host three tripartite reviews with you each year.

How well do you feel that your qualification (through your training provider) helps you to perform better in your role?

2/5

Currently, my qualification holds little impact on my role. This could be because it is the first year and a lot of the modules are still to come, or it could be because the role isn't as technical as it should be. The course also teaches a lot of stuff that could be done on the job more efficiently e.g. with a computer.

Are there extra-curricular activities to get involved in at your work? (For example, any social activities, sports teams, or even professional networking events.)

3/5

There are some, such as at Christmas time or when we have a new cohort. There are quite a few professional events that you can attend due to the role - not necessarily due to the employer though.

Recommendations & Advice

Would you recommend City of Wolverhampton Council to a friend?

Why?

I feel that most coming into this apprenticeship will expect a technical one, this isn't the case at the council. You still pick up vital skills, they just aren't that role specific and more set you up to be a local authority project manager rather than a senior engineer.