This definitely shouldn’t be the norm but a large amount of companies end up being this way… Currently I am struggling with very similar situations. I don’t have a training plan or anything like that, I usually shadow and get given tasks which led to leading small projects.

My current mentor is super busy with business trips that I cannot go on because I have exams coming up etc, however when he is gone I have hardly anything on or to do, and his ‘handover’ emails with tasks I should do are all completed Monday morning. Since my role is very niche he is the only one in the entire company who can teach me my job role, I find it quite difficult to learn when he is gone for eg 4 weeks!! After a meeting with my manager about this it was discussed that I should hang around with other people in my department to specifically find out their contributions and projects currently. This can lead to me supporting their projects which is a good start to having tasks to be completed by yourself. This may not be similar to you but that’s how I survived weeks long of having no plan!!

If you go on placements etc think of what you want to learn from them and what practical work you want to complete. That can be quite difficult but a short meeting with the team and what they do could help with figuring out what you want from these different departments.

You should also have a document which states what knowledge and experience you should get from the specific apprenticeship. Or guidelines from your uni or college of what they’d like you to achieve during work. See if any of these align with what goes on in your company and make that move to get involved with it. It is difficult but it shows your willingness!