Product category:
Design and Development Consultancy
News Release from: Thales UK
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 29 February 2008
Apprentices show off their simulation
skills
Thales apprentices learn practical skills on the job while attending Central Sussex College to learn the theory behind their work.
Apprentices at Thales UK's training and simulation site in Crawley are showcasing their engineering skills during National Apprenticeship Week (NAW), 25th-29th February Thales employs a team of 20 apprentices at the site, who are trained in a wide variety of engineering skills including hydraulics, electronics, the design and testing of aircraft simulators and business skills such as communications and managing meetings
While they learn practical skills on the job, they also attend Central Sussex College to learn the theory behind their work.
NAW, run by the Learning and Skills Council, aims to highlight the variety of businesses who take on apprentices, such as Thales UK, to give them work-based learning experience.
Throughout the week local businesses that employ and train apprentices will be demonstrating their skills in a series of practical challenges.
Myra Woods, Training Programme Co-ordinator for Thales, explains why the company values its apprentices: "Apprentices are key to our organisation and they are an excellent way of preparing and developing people to become part of our workforce".
"Apprentices have the opportunity to learn and enhance their skills and to gain a nationally recognised qualification, while also earning a wage".
"We have been running apprenticeships for many years through the business in the UK; in fact many of our managers started their careers as apprentices".
Sarah Williamson is a first year full-time apprentice employed by Thales UK.
After completing her AS Levels, Sarah realised her main interests were within science and technology and so she joined Thales UK's engineering apprentice scheme in September 2007 as a Technician Apprentice.
As part of her apprenticeship Sarah is currently studying a range of subjects at Central Sussex College, including electrical instillation, electronics and electrical principles, maintenance and hand skills, mathematics, business and communication.
She says: "I enjoy learning practical skills, such as circuiting, that I will be able to use in my future career and day to day life".
Neil Whitehead is a Technician Apprentice at Thales UK.
Neil enjoys hands-on work and is directly involved in building and commissioning aircraft simulators.
Key skills that Neil has learnt include how to run meetings, creating drawings using design tools, testing and commissioning simulators and reading technical documents.
In the final year of Neil's apprenticeship he has worked in programme management while attending Central Sussex College two days a week.
In the future he would like to become a senior programme manager and to run his own project.
Neil says: "I've found the apprenticeship to be a very useful stepping stone into the real world".
"I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is leaving school and wants to do a vocational course at college".
"The Apprenticeship schemes allow you to learn more through actual life experience of the job while getting paid to gain qualifications".
Apprenticeships are becoming increasingly popular.
Last year there were more than 250,000 apprentices in England alone, training in over 200 different types of apprenticeship.
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