Apprentice Engineering Degree - Manufacturing Engineering Single Aisle Stage 01 Technical Shopfloor Support Engineer Review

Prior to my final placement I completed six, 3 month placements, these being:
-Single Aisle Customer Inspection (Quality)
-Single Aisle Stage 02 Flowline (Manufacturing Engineering)
-A350 Widebody Continuous Product Development (CPD) / Incremental Development (ID) (Design)
-Labs / Non Destructive Testing (NDT) (Quality)
-Single Aisle Stage 01 Structures (Manufacturing Engineering)
-Single Aisle Stage 01 Build Support (Design)
Alongside these placements I also completed my EAL Level 4 NVQ Diploma in Engineering Manufacture.
Currently my final placement is within the manufacturing engineering (ME) department in the single aisle structures team (SA01), supporting the operation of the SA01 conventional jigs / SA01A, based as a ME lineside engineer.
The General Day to Day activities consist of:
-Operator issues / Andons
-Engineering Query Notes (EQN) / Work Request Forms (WRF)
-Tooling Issues / Jig issues
-SA01 ME Projects / Involvement scheme ideas
-SAP / Red dot usage
-CATIA V5 usage to develop new tooling and visualise the function on aircraft
-Concession Tooling Requirements
-General Networking with all shopfloor operators, Jigs and tooling, other stages of the build Process Managers (PM's) and Manufacturing Managers (MM's)
-Shopfloor Breakdowns
-Creation of new tooling / kits (ENG's, CPR1053's, PUWER's and TDF)
-Call outs to other areas of the build (SA02 and SA03)
This provides benefits to me as it gives me the ability to investigate manufacturing engineering problems and gaining a broad understanding of the daily routine not only carried out by the lineside engineers, but also all departments in Stage 01 to further help me when I come off my apprenticeship.
Alongside this I am a Swansea University Student working on completing my Aerospace Degree on my third year carrying out the completion of the following modules:
1st Year:
-EGH100A Work Based Learning
-EGH101A Engineering Analysis 1
-EGH102A Business, Management and Quality
-EGH103A Engineering Manufacture
-EGH106A Electrical and Electronic Principles
-EGH107 Engineering Science
-EGH108 Professional Engineering Practice
2nd Year:
-EGH200A Project
-EGH201A Engineering Analysis 2
-EGH202A Flight Mechanics
-EGH203A Advanced Manufacture, CAM and NDT
-EGH204A Stress Analysis and Dynamics
-EGH207 Computer Aided Engineering
-EGH208 Engineering Materials
3rd Year:
-EGH300 Research Project (Dissertation)
-EGH301 Engineering Management
-EGH302A Advanced Engineering Design
-EGH303 Aerodynamics
-EGH304 Finite Element Analysis
-EGH305 Advanced Engineering Structures
-EGH306 Robotics and Automation
-EGH307 Systems Engineering
-EGH309 Advanced Materials
Some of these modules coincide with regular working days as they involve analysis of some of the activities I have been involved with.
I have also become a STEM Ambassador within work carrying out STEM / Early Careers events where possible.

My program has had extremely supportive individuals within it always happy to support my development, especially my university work. Such as individuals within design wanting to help with my Finite Element Methods module or individuals in Quality wanting to help with my Non Destructive Testing Module. The physical structure allows for a streamlined process to become an engineer and physically challenge my skillset by requiring to complete numerous activities at once.

In terms of Airbus as a whole my development has been put first and I always feel like my ideas have been put first across all operations within Airbus. This indicates how involved it has allowed for me to be through exploring different projects and improvements to the build and the company.

Swansea University and Coleg Cambria have been extremely helpful with my skills development always being supportive during exams and assignments but keeping integrity when it comes to the challenges of each which although indicate a hard challenge curve, this allows me to further develop my answers in order to achieve high marks.

The direct relation between what I do in university and in work are quite evident. These performance enhancements are evident within each placement, like my CAD skills development which has been used across all my placements to develop new tooling / designs for the wings through rapid prototyping and other methods. Through NDT development I have implemented tensile tests and other relative types from what I have learned through university into the business. These are just a few types of how skills have been relative to my role, but as a whole I feel like the correspondence between university and work has been quite strong.

Yes

I think airbus is a great company to work for and although it is so large, my development has always been put first alongside my ideas.