As part of National Apprenticeship Week 2019, we are interviewing our current and past apprentices, to find out what it’s like to complete an apprenticeship, and work at Bradbury Group.
Today, we’d like to introduce you to our current and past engineering apprentices, Ollie Harrison, Chris Dawson, and Jamie Rimmington, to give you an insight into apprenticeships and working in engineering.
I’m currently completing an advanced apprenticeship in engineering through North Lindsey College. Through this, I will attain an NVQ Level 3 Extended Diploma in Engineering, and a Level 3 Certificate in Engineering.
I was studying engineering at college but I felt like I would try an apprenticeship as it helps you get more hands down on the job and within a business. Also, it will help me to develop more skills and improve my knowledge of the career I would like to do.
My main responsibilities include making sure that the shop floor always has a work flow to keep the business running, and to make sure that no errors can happen as it will effect the production line.
I have enjoyed my apprenticeship from the very start as I have found it very easy to make new friends and get along with everyone, and I enjoy coming into work for a new task and challenge every day.
I would say I have learnt many interesting things in my role, including how to programme the Salvagnini, a multi-million-pound state-of-the-art machine, which not many people around the country know.
I have finished my qualifications at college, passing all the exams, and hope to finish my NVQ by August this year to then be fully employed by Bradbury Group.
I would not only like to develop more skills within my job at Bradbury Group, but to also try and learn more things around the office/company to increase my knowledge throughout the business to further help benefit the company.
I would recommend an apprenticeship as it has helped me to develop more confidence and responsibility in and outside of the workplace, and I believe you learn more on the job within a company than you would just through college.
Chris Dawson, 26, Design Engineer / CAD TechnicianI completed an advanced apprenticeship in engineering in Summer 2016, gaining an NVQ Level 3 Extended Diploma in Engineering Technical Support.
My main responsibilities include using Solidworks to ensure Bradbury Group and Newton Security Doors products are current and up to date, and producing drawings and PDFs of all our standard brackets and parts. I keep design libraries and registers correct and relevant for all in the department, feed production with doors in accordance with the production schedule, provide support for all areas of the factory (punching, folding, fabrication lines, final assembly). Along with the team leader, I also give support to anyone within the engineering department who requires it, and I assist and liaise with other departments.
It has helped in many ways, the main one being it gave me a clear path that I wanted to pursue. It allowed me to experience similar areas of the same job role that enabled me to set my sights on where I wanted to end up at the end of the apprenticeship, plus the direction to go in afterwards.
I hope to establish myself as a design engineer, being involved in the future innovative solutions and projects that the engineering development team at Bradbury Group undertake. Over the past 12 months, I have more and more been exposed to this sort of role and believe it will only continue. The opportunities for myself are there and this has been largely down to coming through an apprenticeship program and working my way up. I believe I am a well-respected within the company, and looked upon with high regards in the department, and it is my aim to not only continue that, but also take it to the next level.
Completing an apprenticeship is a brilliant way for any young person to get their foot into the path they wish to follow. It gives you the working environment experience that is vital to personal development and a great decision for any company to take on apprentices as they can offer so much fresh knowledge and bring new ideas to the table.
Jamie Rimmington, 21, Processing/Tooling EngineerI completed an engineering apprenticeship in November 2017, achieving a BTEC Level 3 Diploma and an NVQ Level 3 Extended Diploma, both in engineering. I wanted to complete this as it was the next qualification up from my Level 3 Sub-Diploma, which I did the previous year at college.
I do multiple jobs in the engineering department, ranging from processing the door models on SolidWorks and then creating DXFs of them for tooling, to also ordering the kickplates/anti-drill from Youth Engineering Scunthorpe (YES), and any other non-standard parts for the doors, as well as drawing up new hardware and creating brackets for them. I also tool the DXFs on Radan for the Dallan and Trumpf machines, as well as tooling most of the stock part programs we have using common line tooling. I am also the only engineer in the department that can do both tooling and processing.
I’d recommend an apprenticeship as you get both qualifications and pay at the same time, and this can lead to a job with that same company after.
