A family friend told me about Air New Zealand’s 36-week pre-apprenticeship training programme for aircraft engineers and I applied straight out of school. Although I wasn’t accepted as an apprentice that year, I applied again a year later and was offered a place.
I worked in a variety of areas in the engineering workshops with a focus on aircraft structure and mechanics. The hands on aspect of my apprenticeship matched my learning style. Now, as a licensed aircraft engineer, I can take my skills anywhere in the world.
An apprenticeship is great
It’s all good hands on work so as you’re going through doing any of the jobs, you get your paperwork evidence and write it up. You have the people in the workshop as well as all the tradesmen for support. Most of the guys are pretty good. If you’ve got a question they’ll stop and give you a hand.
Although not a fan of writing up assessments and doing the written work, I admit to seeing the value in the paperwork aspect of an apprenticeship. The training is on the job, so the people who are already working are training you, and the ServiceIQ side of things makes sure you’re up to correct standards.
You get a lot more insight as to what you’ve gone through: making sure you’re following all the correct procedures, wearing all the correct safety equipment and using all authorised materials. The written work also helps recap on what you learn on the job, reinforcing the skills and procedures.
With Air New Zealand’s focus on innovation and new aircraft being introduced to the fleet I don’t expect to get bored of this job anytime soon. Every day you come to work you learn something new. When the 777s came we learnt a whole new set of skills, and the same with the new 787 Dreamliners. It is going to be another really big skill set that we’re going to have to learn.
Find out more about ServiceIQ Apprenticeships here.
For more information, please contact ServiceIQ on 0800 863 693 or email intel@ServiceIQ.org.nz