Product Design and Development Degree Apprentice Review

I am one in a large annual cohort of apprentices at Jaguar Land Rover. There are many streams to be chosen from during your application, and I chose the Applied Professional Engineering Programme (APEP), specifically Product Design and Development (PDD). When I started, I was assigned my home team in Body Exteriors, and I quickly settled within the Bumpers commodity, where I have been doing 6 month placements at different levels for the last 18 months.
We are offered hybrid working, and I spend around 3/5 days in the office per week. For my current placement, this can vary between the different JLR sites. I do a mix of admin work and my computer, CAD (CATIA) and physical testing on the shop floor, working on prototypes of cars to be released in the near future.
When I am at uni, this is for a few days every month. This is mostly in-person, but can also be online. We have full days of lectures and seminars and are given assignments and exams just like regular university students, though the work is spread to accommodate our roles in the company.

There was a lot of confusion and inconsistency between different teams of apprentices at the start of first year, despite the very helpful induction days used to explain the rough structure of the next 4 years. It was clear that there was no standard agreed between the Early Careers team and line managers as to what was expected of apprentices. Some apprentices were allowed placements, some weren't. Some were expected in the office every day and others worked remotely. Most apprentices spent the first 6 months adjusting to life in a corporate environment straight out of college/sixth form.
This has significantly improved in the last 18 months, partly because of increased communication between the Early Careers team, line managers and the university, but also because apprentices have settled in their roles and have a better understanding of what is expected of us.

There are many points of contact to receive support. Line manager, mentor, Early Careers leads and coordinators, and other team members. Regular weekly catchups are encouraged between line managers and mentors to keep up-to-date with our progress and also provide an opportunity to raise any concerns or ask for help. I can ask for help from anyone within our team if I am struggling with a project and everyone is willing to help me learn. We are given many opportunities to give feedback on the programme and ask for support. JLR is also good at dealing with changes in personal circumstances, such as offering help through Occupational Health

Support at the uni is provided through our personal tutors. We have meetings between the apprentice, their line manager and their personal tutor every 8 weeks, which helps keep us on track and make sure we are hitting all our requirements (Knowledge, Skills and Behaviours). Wellbeing and disability services are excellent and very accommodating.
In terms of learning content, we have 2.5 days of lectures and seminars on campus every few weeks, and occasional online weeks. Many apprentices struggle with the hours of focus time all at once, and our irregular uni schedule makes it a challenge to stay consistent at work, considering we also have exams and assignments just as full-time students do. Module tutors can be contacted via Teams or email, though it is still difficult to arrange 1:1 time for module-specific help outside campus time. So staying on top of content is a challenge.

I do not feel that most of the content learned in uni modules is directly relevant to my role at work. Most roles at JLR are based around using applications and processes that are specific to JLR, and the use of these just gets taught at work, not uni. Hard skills learned in our modules are heavily focussed on application of maths, sustainability and MATLAB. Some of this can be helpful in understanding how systems we use are built, but this does not help me in my day-to-day projects. I think CAD (3DExperience) should be a bigger focus on our course. I think that the soft skills we learn, especially in group projects, are more directly useful. For example communication and collaboration are applicable across the board.

Yes

4 years experience, a degree from a great uni with no debt, so many opportunities for growth and self-improvement, an excellent wage, amazing friends. This cannot be compared to full time at uni. Compared to apprenticeships at other companies, JLR definitely has much more of a community.