last year (after finding that i had to retake some exams) i applied to these companies for an apprenticeship:

Aston Martin

Ferrari

McClaren (2 bodywork jobs)

BMW

VAG (VW, Audi, Seat and Skoda)

Ford

Vauxhall

none of them even replied with a thank you for applying. I didnt get any of them, but i found it really rude and unprofessional of them to not reply.

Easier to work in another industry, get a shite load more money and then have a nice car anyway

I did a 3 yr course with Porsche, and it was great. They run there own Scheme like alot of the other manufacturers are starting to do.

I could of gone to my local EMTEC college, but then I would of been working for some one like Kwik fit etc....

I never regretted once, I am now in my 5th year in working for Porsche and am looking to either move into Vehicle body repair or goimg into the race mechanics side of my Job. With the experience i have companys have been wanting to snap me up but nothing has come up yet to warrant a move.

Just make sure its something you definatly want to do before you make the move.

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

aah rite wicked, well....mytravel BUT am looking for a job with kinch aviation, servicing private jets

i want my damn B license!

i am an apreentice at my Local Ford dealer. As said before, the wages are crap to start with, i have been there 8 months and i am on £2.73 an hour, and only get £106 a week (thats why my polo is on a budget lol), i have to stay there for 3 years, but at the the end of it, I will be a qualified Ford techy, on more money, and i can still progress at the end of the to become a senior, specialist or master technian. So yeah its well worth doin i say. I work 5 days a week, and go to Fords own college every so often, which i a great laugh.

You'll always be in a job, as people always need there cars fixing/servicing.

i work in an arnold clark garage. I'm in my 3rd year of my apprenticeship.

aprentaships? LOL

I'm on one doin vehicle body repair

anddddd it good when you boss isnt a complete w**ker and you dont get decent pay :/

i have been there 8 months and i am on £2.73 an hour

Er... What?

thats miles below minimum wage? how do they get away with that?

I'm in my second year of A-levels and I've been looking into business/accountancy orientated job within a car company. BMW do them I think. I want to have something to do with cars, but know fuck all about them mechanically. What a predicament.

Otherwise i might just fuck it off and get a job with Lloyds TSB and be able to pay other people for doing things to my car rather than be able to do it myself lolz.

I finished my Joinery apprenticeship last year and wasnt happy about my wages to begin with, but apprenticships dont come under the minimum wage.

Theirs not much you can do but keep up the good work and keep asking for pay rises!

Edited 23 April, 200818 yr by LeonBritton123

i have been there 8 months and i am on £2.73 an hour

Er... What?

thats miles below minimum wage? how do they get away with that?

no idea, its a national thing mate, cant do owt about, just got to stick with it.

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!

^^^^ Really good advice there

very sound advice, this time of year i always have a think about if what i'm doing is what i really want to do, and all the time i go through other avenues i could take. And finishing the Motorsport Degree is the only thing that will get me anywhere, just go to put up with the work. But you dont do a degree for the student loan

i do motorsport engineering...... pretty much crap unless you want to work on shitty formula cars for the rest of your life lol. still get to learn to weld though so thats making me stay

i do motorsport engineering...... pretty much crap unless you want to work on shitty formula cars for the rest of your life lol.

A motorsport engineering degree shouldn't (and doesn't) limit you to motorsport, and even if you're staying within the motorsport arena there's a lot more opportunities than Formula cars.

I would love to work on Formula Cars ..

Are you not intrested in things like development??

Surley once you finnish your degree you can get a job in the motorsport industry and keep training from then on .

Id love to be into development of anything based around engines to aerodynamics ..

i have been there 8 months and i am on £2.73 an hour

Er... What?

thats miles below minimum wage? how do they get away with that?

minimum wage doesn't apply to apprenticeships in the first year, even if you are over 18

http://www.tgwu.org.uk/Templates/Journal.a...entNodeID=89440

bit of a joke really!

Edited 24 April, 200818 yr by andyniceday

i do motorsport engineering...... pretty much crap unless you want to work on shitty formula cars for the rest of your life lol.

A motorsport engineering degree shouldn't (and doesn't) limit you to motorsport, and even if you're staying within the motorsport arena there's a lot more opportunities than Formula cars.

like andy said, the motorsport degree doesnt limit you to just motorsport, you can go into any area of the automotive industry tbh. Because the degree covers everything automotive, and then specialises in the racing area of things. You do alot of cool shit aswell

Yoof hasnt done badly out of Motorsport has he?

i do motorsport engineering...... pretty much crap unless you want to work on shitty formula cars for the rest of your life lol.

A motorsport engineering degree shouldn't (and doesn't) limit you to motorsport, and even if you're staying within the motorsport arena there's a lot more opportunities than Formula cars.

like andy said, the motorsport degree doesnt limit you to just motorsport, you can go into any area of the automotive industry tbh. Because the degree covers everything automotive, and then specialises in the racing area of things. You do alot of cool shit aswell

Yoof hasnt done badly out of Motorsport has he?

looking at their website on what the corse coveres would suggest as you say that it coveres everything automotive and then specialises in racing...but it doesnt, basicly its verry disorganised and like i said, doesnt do what it says on the tin. they have completely fucked us around numerous times. obviously it shouldnt just limit you to just being in a race team, but had you actualy been where i go you would notice how byast and narrow minded they are. for instance i suggested that i might want to go into the drifting and they basicly said it wasnt real motorsport. I'm not saying that motorsport degrees are bad, I'm just saying the one I'm on is pretty crap unless you are into formula cars.

i do motorsport engineering...... pretty much crap unless you want to work on shitty formula cars for the rest of your life lol.

A motorsport engineering degree shouldn't (and doesn't) limit you to motorsport, and even if you're staying within the motorsport arena there's a lot more opportunities than Formula cars.

like andy said, the motorsport degree doesnt limit you to just motorsport, you can go into any area of the automotive industry tbh. Because the degree covers everything automotive, and then specialises in the racing area of things. You do alot of cool shit aswell

Yoof hasnt done badly out of Motorsport has he?

I'm sure he will tell you when he has Finished his Course

last year (after finding that i had to retake some exams) i applied to these companies for an apprenticeship:

Aston Martin

Ferrari

McClaren (2 bodywork jobs)

BMW

VAG (VW, Audi, Seat and Skoda)

Ford

Vauxhall

none of them even replied with a thank you for applying. I didnt get any of them, but i found it really rude and unprofessional of them to not reply.

Easier to work in another industry, get a shite load more money and then have a nice car anyway

I get a reply from BMW within days! strange that

I'm just about to finish my motor vehicle course and to be honest i wish id never done it now.

The pay in the motor vehicle trade just isn't that good!

I like to go into engineering to be honest, and also the police or armed forces :)

its a paint trying 2 get an apprentaship...good luck!

i do motorsport engineering...... pretty much crap unless you want to work on shitty formula cars for the rest of your life lol.

A motorsport engineering degree shouldn't (and doesn't) limit you to motorsport, and even if you're staying within the motorsport arena there's a lot more opportunities than Formula cars.

like andy said, the motorsport degree doesnt limit you to just motorsport, you can go into any area of the automotive industry tbh. Because the degree covers everything automotive, and then specialises in the racing area of things. You do alot of cool shit aswell

Yoof hasnt done badly out of Motorsport has he?

looking at their website on what the corse coveres would suggest as you say that it coveres everything automotive and then specialises in racing...but it doesnt, basicly its verry disorganised and like i said, doesnt do what it says on the tin. they have completely fucked us around numerous times. obviously it shouldnt just limit you to just being in a race team, but had you actualy been where i go you would notice how byast and narrow minded they are. for instance i suggested that i might want to go into the drifting and they basicly said it wasnt real motorsport. I'm not saying that motorsport degrees are bad, I'm just saying the one I'm on is pretty crap unless you are into formula cars.

Where are you studying, and what course exactly?

I work in the automotive industry, and it's surprising the amount of different qualifications people have got. I know mechanical engineers that are working as hybrid vehicle power electronics engineers, and electronic guys working as powertrain engineers. Once you leave uni, your degree subject isn't as important as you think it might be - but obviously you'd not be employing politics students as engineers!

Experence counts for alot - often more than qualifications alone.

Work send me to uni, I'm in my first year and only go 1 day a week yet I earn more money and am senior to several guys who joined the firm in last few months after finishing their full time degrees

I've got an apprenticeship with BMW and just started my 3rd year now, NVQ's level 2 & 3 complete, only got my BMW tech's exams to sit.

The pay is crap until you qualify.. granted but it really depends on where you are working.

The garages aren't BMW, they're franchises so dont pay apprentices much, where as i work at the MINI factory in Oxford and because this is BMW employed, the wage is pretty good, but the course is 4 years altho qualified after 2.. its just 2 years of cheap labour.

if you do want to go into the motor trade, the wages are crap to start with if you go down the route of dealerships etc. but i would recommend applying to factory's.... BMW, Toyota, Merc and Ford are all places i applied to.

but like was previously said, working on customer cars all day can de-motivate you from working on your own car. i find that happens alot.

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

aah rite wicked, well....mytravel BUT am looking for a job with kinch aviation, servicing private jets

i want my damn B license!

ohi kwl i finished my apprenticship now big wedge in the bank this month hopfully but iam starting to do

my lecnces soon which will take that wedge out :(

oooo spam.

I was in my second year of college, on a motor vehicle course, when i started i had a scooter and a part time job, £70 a week was all good, then a got my car, and was paying like £189 a month insurance + petrol + paying board..

Tried to get a an apprenticship for like 4 months with no luck at all, in all honesty, if i was Polish i'd have got one in minutes.

So had to give up the idea, leave college and get a proper job.

Now working as a fabricator making PVC windows /doors etc.

Pays between 160 and 200 a week so despite not being my ideal job, i need the money.