Apprentice Engineer

John – Apprentice Engineer, BAA Heathrow

I completed a four-year apprenticeship scheme, for the first year of which I went to Kingston College full-time, continuing in the second year one day a week to get my National Certificate of Engineering.

As for the on-the-job training, over the apprenticeship we rotated around the different sections - I’ve recently been working in the Electronics department.

My shift starts at 8am, I log on to find out what work I’ll be doing and will always know if an emergency crops up because I’ll see to them first.

I guess one of the many reasons why I’d recommend the apprenticeship is that you get qualifications while you’re gathering real experience as well. You could go to university for four years but you’d get into lots of debt and just be where I am now – so why not do the apprenticeship and get paid for it? In fact, I’ve just got my NVQ3, and we had an awards evening at the Hilton with dinner and a free bar. BAA will also pay for me to do further study, so I’ll have the equivalent of a degree soon too.