Level 6 Hardware Apprentice Review

My role as an apprentice is to learn from others around me, developing and honing my skills, so that I can become a highly skilled and qualified engineer. Depending what placement I am on, my work can vary significantly. Currently, I am doing a lot of hands-on work, helping to fabricate cables and other testing equipment that can be used in-house. There is also the opportunity to use a variety of software applications, whether that be for documentation (Teamcenter, SharePoint, Oracle, etc), or for electronic design (Mentor, KiCAD, Visio, etc). Overall, there is a range of work that can help hone various different skills.

Overall, I would say my programme is very well organised. Our line manager keeps on top of everything that he needs to do, whether it is organising training, or communicating issues with the university. We have had some issues with the university side, though this is likely due to the apprenticeship team at the university being fairly new when we started - but overall everything is running smoothly.

Our manager is very supportive, not only through communicating issues with the university, but also when on site. We have monthly catch-up meetings with him, where he finds out how our current placements and university work is going. He also gives us work-from-home days when needed, in preparation for exams, allowing us to perform at our best.
Our company also provides a lot of additional benefits, such as a shares programme, health, dental, and travel insurance (salary sacrifice), and also hold competitions where prizes can be won.

Overall, the university is quite good at providing resources, whether that be from lecture materials, or from the library - where we can access an array of studies, journal articles, and books. They also provide access to various software application such as Visio and ADS, which are provided for free from the university.
The apprenticeship team have termly progress reviews with us, to check that we are logging our off-the-job hours, and keeping up-to-date with our training and KSBs. The only issue we have, is that they tend to be slow at sending out documents that are required, with our line manager having to push them for a response.

I find that the qualification helps greatly, as the course is integrated well with the work that we do for the company. For example, we have used Arduino for coding at university, we have also used at work for our recent project. We've also done basic circuit design and simulations at university, which will be needed for our line of work.

Yes

Having previously worked in a high-stress environment, this company is very relaxed in comparison, when talking about deadlines and the pace of work. There are still deadlines, but these tend to be over months or years, rather than each day, as was in my previous line of work.
Given that the site I work at is very large, there is a wide variety of projects to get involved in and a lot of people which I can network with. I have learnt a great deal from working with colleagues, many of whom have decades of experience.
Compared to a lot of companies, there is a good work-life balance, as there is no demanding managers or other senior colleagues, as everybody understands that you do your hours and go home.
There is plenty of social activities to get involved in if that is your thing, and there is also a wide variety of activities to do outside of work, in the local area.
For an apprenticeship, the pay is also very good, and the company also provides additional benefits, such as yearly bonus schemes, and salary sacrifice opportunities.