does anyone on here have an apprenticeship within the motor trade? if so who do you work for? what does it involve.

basically I'm at college now, but aint happy with the course at all, and fancy taking on an apprenticeship. i have very good qualifications so i shouldnt have any problems.

just wanted peoples opinions if they have them and what they think

looked at doing one earlyer this year for BMW, turns out il get less of a qualification then i would at college and i have a parttime job which pays more then an appretice wage

if you have good enough grades do something better than an apprenticeship. i mean i love my job to bits but there are better things you could be doing and getting four times as much money as i do a week

i really wanted to do graphicd design, but the course I'm on, isnt what i told it was, and isnt what we did on the open day, weve hardly touched a computer yet, its just art history, natural drawing and a load of bollocks i aint intrested in

do a apprenticeship in aircraft engineering like me

i really wanted to do graphicd design, but the course I'm on, isnt what i told it was, and isnt what we did on the open day, weve hardly touched a computer yet, its just art history, natural drawing and a load of bollocks i aint intrested in

How long is the course? some courses have stuff at the beginning to help you improve your design skills. Even if you're not interested in it I'd stick with it, I do engineering at uni and still had to do a load of art/drawing/etc in the 1st year... Find out about what happens later on in the course maybe?? Just offering an insight, but then I don't know anything about your course so feel free to ignore me

I'm in this situation at the moment, I'm pretty clever but I hate college. I want to do an apprentiship in car sales, but you have to be 18 and have 2 A-levels. Anyway depending on how old you are use this website if your upto 19, it might be of some use!

http://www.connexions-direct.com/

dont be a quitter.

I've already been to conextions and theyve found me afew placements with big companys, so I've applied for them.

Next year the course is art history, and life drawing so fek that!

and I'm not being a quiter, I'm just droping out, after a year, happy with 1 a leval, and finding some other kind of education

I've applied for an apprentiship with fords but i haven't heard back yet. You get some qualifications and a chance to do a degree. Start at 10k a year and finish on 20 something by the end of the 4 years. (it slowly goes up). I'm still at collage for now though.

does anyone on here have an apprenticeship within the motor trade? if so who do you work for? what does it involve.

basically I'm at college now, but aint happy with the course at all, and fancy taking on an apprenticeship. i have very good qualifications so i shouldnt have any problems.

just wanted peoples opinions if they have them and what they think

Its not the qualifications mate..its the fucking spaces they have to take u on!

2nd year trying at Bmw now :)

despite being a complete mechanical retard i actually looked into this recently after deciding my life lacked direction, if i was you i wouldn't take an apprenticeship in car mechanics i'd take it in either marine or aviation mechanics the entry level money is much better and less people do it so you've a greater chance of progression.

i really want to do something automotive related too, but am not wanting to do the apprenticeship route (not even sure i can, i'll be 21 in a couple months :( )

I'm at college doing electrical engineering, because the company i work for wanted me to do the course... and i dont really even want to work for this company

Have you people just emailed BMW etc or are there proper channels to go through. really no idea

I've got pretty good grades, 12 A-C GCSE, and a-levels in maths, physics, computing, economics, politics and english. But cars are my passion

so yeah, is it worth just emailing a big firm enquiring about places?

Edited 21 April, 200818 yr by Joel

Apprenticeships are the best way to get into a trade without a doubt, if you get on somewhere good and knuckle down you'll be well away. Yea the wages are pretty much illegal at the start but you move up through the ranks. I started on £90 a week but it improves every year and 4 years later I've moved well off the bottom step of the ladder and doing pretty good for a 21 year old.

If you want to do something practical like engineering i'd definately reccommend it!

i really want to do something automotive related too, but am not wanting to do the apprenticeship route (not even sure i can, i'll be 21 in a couple months :( )

I'm at college doing electrical engineering, because the company i work for wanted me to do the course... and i dont really even want to work for this company

Have you people just emailed BMW etc or are there proper channels to go through. really no idea

I've got pretty good grades, 12 A-C GCSE, and a-levels in maths, physics, computing, economics, politics and english. But cars are my passion

so yeah, is it worth just emailing a big firm enquiring about places?

What are you studying at college? Is it a HND or degree level qualification? Might be worth looking at some of the major OEM/big consultancy graduate schemes if so.

i really wanted to do graphicd design, but the course I'm on, isnt what i told it was, and isnt what we did on the open day, weve hardly touched a computer yet, its just art history, natural drawing and a load of bollocks i aint intrested in

Have you spoken to your college/uni/tutors about your concerns? That should be the first point of call. If you have, have you looked at other courses/colleges that would supply a course you would be happy with? Seems a bit of a shame if you wanted to do graphical design but you didn't cause the cause isn't what you wanted and then go in a completely different direction (that's not to say you shouldn't).

I looked into changing career paths and going into motor mechanics (I am a Data Analyst/Project Manager and my job can be rather boring but it pays quite well) and I really like messing with cars and understanding the mechanics behind them, why and how they work, but the salaries in the Motor Industry kind of put me off. Even degree holding Automotive Engineers don't get paid what they should here in the UK. (I think that is actually the same for all engineers). So I decided to keep doing my job which allows me the money and the time to mess around with my cars as my Hobby.

having droped out of a mechanical apprenticship cos my manager was an arshole, my advice to any one wnting to get in to the motor trade is get in touch with em-tec there the company that handles a lot of the recruitment and training for the motor trade

i really wanted to do graphicd design, but the course I'm on, isnt what i told it was, and isnt what we did on the open day, weve hardly touched a computer yet, its just art history, natural drawing and a load of bollocks i aint intrested in

Have you spoken to your college/uni/tutors about your concerns? That should be the first point of call. If you have, have you looked at other courses/colleges that would supply a course you would be happy with? Seems a bit of a shame if you wanted to do graphical design but you didn't cause the cause isn't what you wanted and then go in a completely different direction (that's not to say you shouldn't).

I looked into changing career paths and going into motor mechanics (I am a Data Analyst/Project Manager and my job can be rather boring but it pays quite well) and I really like messing with cars and understanding the mechanics behind them, why and how they work, but the salaries in the Motor Industry kind of put me off. Even degree holding Automotive Engineers don't get paid what they should here in the UK. (I think that is actually the same for all engineers). So I decided to keep doing my job which allows me the money and the time to mess around with my cars as my Hobby.

Good advice ^^^

I recently swapped degree courses within my university. I was studying Engineering Design...I fell out with the engineering side and I was really enjoying the design side. I was lucky that we had a lecturer from the art school who OK'd it for me to get advanced entry into 3rd year Product Design. Fell in love with university again.

i really wanted to do graphicd design, but the course I'm on, isnt what i told it was, and isnt what we did on the open day, weve hardly touched a computer yet, its just art history, natural drawing and a load of bollocks i aint intrested in

What does the course progress on to? You need to be able to understand art, have the ability to sketch/draw and have a general strong footing before progressing on...although not being able to indulge in what you enjoy can be frustrating. If you can find out what comes next it might be worth sticking around? At our art school the 1st years all do the same course before moving off to their own disciplines in second year.

i really wanted to do graphicd design, but the course I'm on, isnt what i told it was, and isnt what we did on the open day, weve hardly touched a computer yet, its just art history, natural drawing and a load of bollocks i aint intrested in

If you want to do graphic design, I would seriously recommend you stick it out and get your head down for this part. I'd say your college know exactly what they're doing by trying to teach you this first.

I studied Multimedia Design (very similar to the graphics course run alongside it, just with a bit of web/3d) at college after I finished my GCSEs. I did really well but took a couple of years out after and did a couple of temp graphic jobs, then moved to a decent Web/Flash design job for nearly a year. I quit that for no other reason than I wanted to move away to uni as I thought it'd be something I would regret not doing later in life. I'm now studying Interactive Media Design which is a huge mix of design/web/3d/sound/video and I choose what I want to specialise in in the final year.

In our 1st year at college we had modules just like what you're talking about: Drawing Development, Historical & Contextual studies alongside a couple of more 'normal' graphic modules. My mindset was just like yours, I saw little point in learning about how to draw really basic stuff or the intricate details of the Art Deco movement of the 1920s and 30s. I skipped alot of these classes and put all my effort into Photoshop or Freehand (as it was) work.

Only after finishing college and working in industry did I realise how important what they're trying to teach you know. It's fine if you're a whiz on the computer and can knock up professional-looking poster designs or whatnot. A true design process would be if you could actually visualize and develop your idea before you even got near a computer. A former colleague of mine was top notch on the computer, but his illustration work was another level and completely blew me away, and I saw how this related to how he worked on the computer. I'd say this is even more important if you're doing pure graphics for print rather than web or other stuff.

I regretted ignoring these classes at college so much I did an evening class at a different college while working full-time (and it cost me out my own pocket) in life drawing which really helped. It was a really 'arty' little course which encouraged me to do things I'd never thought I'd enjoy, mixed media collages etc. Even after finishing it I didn't think it helped me that much but looking at my work since I can see elements that are very much improved because of it. One of my current projects at uni is a 2D animation in Flash, alot of this relies on the storyboard and actual character design and action. We're encourage regularly to not go near a computer for the first few weeks of a project, regardless if the final peice is all computer produced. Anyways...

Why did you want to do graphics in the first place?

I fully hear what you're saying about wanting to get a job in the motor trade. I spend a ridiculous amount of time thinking and looking at things more car-orientated than Uni and design stuff. Sometimes I think I should have looked at doing some kind of engineering or automotive course, I've got the qualifications for design work already and would rather just keep the car stuff as a hobby. A good friend of mine used to work as an apprentice for a big dealership, he quit and ended up in a job at McDonalds (seriously) because working on cars all day completely killed his motivation to do anything to his own or in his spare time. They were also paying him less than £1.20/hour and he had his own set of ramps doing jobs that they were charging £80 labour rate on

Listen to the advice that other people are telling you and definately speak to your college tutors if you're having any doubts before you go off and look at other avenues(oops-just read you've already done this...) and make your mind up.

Now I need to get on with my uni work!

good luck to all of you :)

I'm doing a electrical apprenticeship and it is a good way to get expierience, and pay and also makes it easier to gt other jobs

do a apprenticeship in aircraft engineering like me

thats what iam doing now were are u having you are apprenticship ??

iam doing mine with airbus and hhawker private jets

You used connexions? they are crap they offered me an I.T aprenticeship at £50 a week miles from where i live it cost more to comute and feed me than i earned so i randomly ended up a chef even though no experience. I'll ask my younger brother he started down the path to an aprenticeship and knew how to go about it and even had one with vw/audi set up then he decided not to do it the pleb

I'm afraid i haven't read all of the previous posts so excuse me if i'm repeating anything, but here is my advice:

Stick with the course, finish it and then go to uni and do a real graphics design course.. I hated my college course, but stuck with it because i knew once finished I could go to uni and do anything i wanted.

I'm now graduating this year and i'm in the final round of interviews for the software design job i've always dreamed of doing

:-)

I also have a apprenticeship in but Civil Engineering . Almost finnished now 3 weeks till completion .. Woop .

Id say its a good way of getting into a good job iff you choose a good company .

Once youve finnished there happy to train you furthar.

I've got 2 years left tilli finnish my degree part time .

Wish i worked in the Auto trade .. Unfortinatly you just dont get enougth wonga ..

Edited 22 April, 200818 yr by StevieDavison