Once you have a job as an engineer there are lots of types of training that you can do.  Some of these will earn you extra certificates or teach you new skills and other will be learning from other people.

Meet Rob Gibson. Product Technical Support Manager at CooperÖstland.  Rob will talk about how he became an engineer, from his time as an apprentice to his current role and how he has kept learning throughout his career.  

Mentoring and job shadowing

Sometimes at work you'll have a mentor, someone who keeps an eye on what you're doing and gives you helpful advice and feedback.  They'll also suggest training for you and help you put what you learn into practice.

This might include shadowing someone - that's following and watching what they do so you can learn from seeing someone else do it first.

Internships

Internships in the UK are work experience that you have with a company for a set amount of time, so you can learn from doing things.  

You'll be paid for your time and learn lots of different skills.

Apprenticeships

Apprenticeships are similar to internships in that you'll work for a company for a set amount of time.  You'll usually go to college or university at the same time. 

You'll be paid for your time too and learn skills which you'll put into practice whilst you are there.

The main differences from internships is they last longer and you'll earn a qualification.

You can find out more about apprenticeships in our case study about them

Find out more

Orientation

Every job will include orientation where you are shown around the company and how things will work.  This will include where things are, like the toilets and cafeteria (if there is one), but also meeting people you'll work with and finding out any rules you need to remember.

Job sharing

You may also be allowed to share a job with someone else, you'll both get paid as normal, but you'll take turns to do different tasks and you'll need to talk to each other a lot to make sure you know what's happening.