At the start of my apprenticeship I spent 3 enjoyable months in quality working in the compliance department. This was a great place to start my apprenticeship as it gave me a massive scope of the entire business as quality is incorporated throughout the company this meant that I was able to gain a vast amount of experience very quickly which has served me well as I have moved through different placements. My first task in compliance was to oversee the developing of systems and strategies and to ensure all products adhere to the company’s safety and quality standards. After this I slowly started to move more towards supplier quality which I found more enjoyable, the manager recognised this and started to award me more jobs which fulfilled this role, I got to work on the F135 which is a U.S fighter jet which as you can imagine for any young apprentice is very captivating and interesting. From this experience I aim to go into a supplier quality as a career path.
I work in the supplier quality team which is made up of three people including myself, however supplier quality is just a smaller group from the entire quality group which is made up of 20 people. Having sub teams has worked well for my apprenticeship as I have been able to feel more comfortable asking questions and feel part of a team. Everyone in the entire team are really nice and include me in any activities which will develop my skills. Being part of a big team overall is good as it means I can develop a wider range of skills not just supplier quality.
The first year of my apprenticeship was spent solely at the training provider where I learnt basic engineering skills and complete my level 2 competency which were essential for me to progress. In year 2 and 3 I rotated placements to further my understanding of the company, a wider range of engineering skills and understand what is best for me in the future. In these placements I decided with my apprenticeship assessor which write-ups and knowledge questions best fit the placement I was in with the aim to further my understanding, get more involved and it also goes towards my level 3 competency which is extremely helpful as it means you can easily manage the workload as it is on the job.