Abby and Matty have recently finished their second six month placements.

Abby

I have just finished my placement with the Logistics division at EGGER, during this 6 months I worked in both the Transport and Production Planning departments.

 In Transport, I helped to:

·       Pay hauliers.

On Thursday 21 July, EGGER entered two teams into the Active Workplace Games.

Between the two teams and 23 employees from EGGER, there were 5 of us from our Apprentice Social Media team; Geri, Bailey, George, Ben and Lewis.

Spread across the two teams we all completed the following 12 activities:

• Badminton

During the 4th year of our Mechanical Apprenticeship you are required to perform the role of a Mechanical Shift Fitter for six months, working 12 hour day and night shifts. The role of a Shift Fitter is to rapidly respond to emergency breakdowns within the factory. The job is required to be done as quickly and as safely as possible so that the loss in production is minimised.

We both recently attended the Exercise Executive Stretch course which was organised by the RFCA (Reserve Forces’ and Cadets’ Association) for Yorkshire and the Humber at Wathgill army base in Catterick.

The course is designed to improve leadership and team work skills during the 3 days you spend with the armed forces.

 The final part of our apprenticeship training is to spend 6 months working on the 4-shift pattern within the department, I have recently completed this part and am now back working on day shift.

The 4-shift pattern includes 12 hour day and night shifts as well as over weekends.

During our apprenticeship, in year three, we complete process training. This involves spending time in the four main departments within the factory and getting an understanding of how they work and what their contribution is to the final product.

I have just finished my placement within the Lamination department. Whilst in each department we are asked to research a specific technical project and also a production project which are part of the department’s process. Whilst in Lamination I was asked to study the hydraulics function and sequence of the short cycle press itself.

Throughout our Apprenticeship we work on a number of projects to help us develop our skills and also apply the things we have learnt at college.

At the moment, I am working on a project focussed on overhauling a machine which was bought by EGGER about 3 years ago. The project has been assigned a £10,000 budget which we have to consider throughout the job and I am working closely with the Mechanic Fitter to ensure our project is running to schedule, alongside our team managers and a project engineer to help us complete the project.