Project Control Review

Item: Project Control at BAE Systems
Rating: 4.8
Author: Anonymous

at BAE Systems

Degree Apprenticeship

Business Operations, Data Analysis, Marketing, Project Management, Sales

Warton, Lancashire

Review Submitted: April 2026

Overall Rating

4.8 /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!

5/5 - Overview of Role

5/5 - Skills Development

4.6/5 - Structure and Support

Overview of Role

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

5/5

You have a different role every year for the 5 years you are on the scheme; the day to day basically depends on what your role is. It can vary from cost analysis (budget vs what the project has spent), scheduling, risk analysis, following governance processes. I am now in a role which is more campaigns, sales and marketing so is more looking at bidding for contracts, and business winning activities.

To what extent do you enjoy your programme?

5/5

I enjoy it a lot, the aspect of moving around once per year is great as BAE is such a large company, you get a really good spread of the whole portfolio, different ways of working and different teams. The products are quite exciting too, working on site, especially at Warton with it being a live airfield, you often see Typhoon jets taking off for their test programmes before being shipped to customers.

Skills Development

Have you learnt any new skills or developed existing skills?

5/5

Whilst this scheme really builds on soft skills like leadership, interpersonal skills, problem solving and critical thinking you are trusted to get stuck into all sorts of work to develop new skills. Stuff like scheduling was new to me coming in to this job, as is now something I am quite confident doing. You are considered an 'apprentice' but you are very much learning on the job, being trusted to do all sorts of activities developing various data analysis, IT and project control/management skills.

Structure and Support

How well organised/structured is your programme?

5/5

Very well, the annual rotations are great for development and it's always clear what your next steps of development are, when things are due and what is required from yourself to succeed through the scheme.

How much support do you receive from your employer?

5/5

Plenty, there is an entire Early Careers team who have a door open policy with anything you are struggling with, or any aspirations they can help you achieve. You have a designated 'Skills Coach' as a first point of contact too for all of this. Equally, with your role manager (line manager), early careers encourage them to again be supportive in your development; I have had 5 different line managers and each one has been great and acted as great mentors to learn from.

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

5/5

Regular emails from them, really quick responses to feedback, 1-to-1 drop in sessions. No complaints

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

3/5

IN the early years it's great for helping you get up to scratch with the basics of Project Control, particularly as it is all new to you. I feel towards the latter stages, most of what you learn on the course is stuff you have picked up and know from your day job, so it's almost like a refresher by that point that you just end up doing assignments on. That is maybe by design, as when you are 4 years in industry you are bound to have at least touched on most of the elements of the degree in your roles.

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

5/5

Yes to all in the question. I have been to lots of work socials, played in a variety of work football/golf events, and networking is common too. I do like the networking ones, most that I have been to have been more to with the different years on the apprenticeship scheme - these are useful and you get some experience from people who have been through what you're doing (then equally providing that support and knowledge to people who are in the lower years to yourself), as a result you end up quite close friends with a number of people from the scheme. I have some networking events coming up too, I have been invited to an awards conference coming up in Manchester for PM and PC, where there are networking opportunities to speak to all sorts of people from across the business at different grades.

Recommendations & Advice

Would you recommend BAE Systems to a friend?

Yes

Why?

I genuinely believe there isn't a better apprenticeship scheme out there that you can develop in so quickly

What tips or advice would you give to others applying to BAE Systems?

Show up with a willingness to learn and get stuck in; no one expects you to be the next best thing from day one but getting involved and wanting to learn more seems to go a long way in placements.

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