Apprentice Review

As an apprentice I move through ten different departments within the BBC and spend 4-6 weeks in each. This means that my daily tasks change all the time depending which department I am in although as an apprentice I do get to work on a lot of different content and work with a lot of different teams internally. I work with external people such as member of the public or contributors and am constantly developing my social skills and am always meeting new people. As I move through the departments I get to work on a lot of different projects such as TV shows, educational workshops, radio programmes and news bulletins.

I have learnt lots of new skills such as editing both for TV and radio, researching and camera work. I have gone on internal training courses for using editing software for both TV and radio, working with children etc. I have developed a lot of existing skills throughout my apprenticeship such as my social skills, writing, planning, producing, photography and presenting. I am constantly learning new things about how to create content, edit, broadcast and everything about working in the media and in a place such as the BBC.

I greatly enjoy my apprenticeship, I really look forward to coming to work every day and it is much better than any previous job I have done. Everyone I have worked with has been really nice and the BBC is a really friendly place. I have also made a lot of great friends in my departments and with the other apprentices on the programme. The apprenticeship has exceeded my expectations and I am loving every minute of it, I had no idea of how much really fun and interesting work I would be doing and I am loving every minute of it.

I feel extremely valued by the BBC; every team I have worked with has made sure to make me feel very involved. Everyone I have met within the BBC has been very nice and really helpful, everyone is more than happy to help if I need any assistance and everyone is always happy to answer any questions I may have. I get on very well with my manager and I catch up with her on a regular basis, I am also kept up to date with anything important via phone or email, she is completely supportive. Even external to the BBC I feel valued as when out on shoots I am treated equally to reporters, presenters or crew. I definitely feel like a valued member of the BBC.

My programme is extremely well structured and organised; all the apprentices know what department they are in and when as we were sent a timetable with all the information of our training courses, college days and department details at the beginning of the programme. Our induction was well structured as we all had time to get to know each other, were introduced to a lot of the people we would be working with, spent time with our line manager and went to the college where we would be studying. We had a week of training when we started and other training courses sporadically throughout the programme and these were all very well organised as we had email reminders and I feel like I learnt a lot. We are regularly updated of anything important via email or phone call by our line manager and she is very supportive. We have regular catch ups with our management and they are all very supportive. We go to college two days a month but also have course work to do the rest of the time, we meet up with our lecturer once a week and he goes through our work and points out any parts that need changed or improved and he keeps us all up to date on our progress via email. Task delegation is well organised as teams will know they will be working with an apprentice before we arrive and so will have tasks ready for us and we can ask to work on things that we are especially interested in. I feel like my programme is very well organised and is structured appropriately.

We go to college two days a month but also have course work to do the rest of the time, we meet up with our lecturer once a week and he goes through our work and points out any parts that need changed or improved and he keeps us all up to date on our progress via email. When anything needs remediated our lecturer talks us through how we do this and is more than happy to go over the same thing more than once if we don't understand it.

I get a lot of support from my manager and we have regular catch ups, we also keep in contact via email and I can always go to her when I have any problems or questions. I get support from the HR team and a member of the HR team comes to some of the catch ups I have with my line manager. My mentor is very supportive, we keep in contact via email and we meet up for coffee every couple of months. She also introduces me to people who could help me with my career and I can email her at any time to ask for advice. Getting support in the BBC is very easy as everyone is just an email or a phone call away and people do try to make themselves as available as possible for you. If I have had problems I have had great guidance from staff and everyone is always extremely nice and understanding.

Most months my salary is enough to meet all my costs, although I do occasionally find myself struggling at the end of the month. Also, if there is an emergency, I do worry if I'll have enough money to cope with it. I still love at home so my living costs aren’t much, my monthly salary covers this. I can afford my travel costs with my monthly salary and I'll still have money left. My salary meets my daily costs, social costs and location costs sufficiently.

There are lots of opportunities outside of work, company events such as Big Weekend and T in the Park have been open for us to apply for. I also do the phones for Get It On and Off The Ball outside of my work hours. In my local community I do charity work and this was what I was doing before I started working here at the BBC. There are groups within the BBC such as fitness classes and a choir that we are allowed to join as well

Yes

I find the BBC an amazing place to work, everyone is very friendly and you get to work on some amazing things. There are lots of opportunities to grow and progress in your career and as a person and every day is different, you never have the chance to get bored.

I would advise people to take time over their applications and read each question twice, the application is the first impression you make so it's good to ensure that your first impression isn't a bad one. I'd advise people to dress fairly smart for their interview and to act confident and enthusiastic. For the assessment days I'd advise people to try to stay calm and to read each question carefully. I'd advise people to take advantage of every experience and opportunity and to grasp at everything that comes up. I'd have like to have been told that I would be getting the call to say whether or not I got the job from a withheld number as I never used to answer withheld numbers!