D&E Degree Apprenticeship Apprentice Review

I am a Software Engineering Apprentice working on the BBC Sport website. I use web technologies to help develop 'modules' that we then place on the website. For example I recently was heavily involved with a new football table module which we then replaced the old tables format with. Day to day I work on 'tickets', pieces of work split up, and in the morning we have a daily meeting where we explain how far along we are with the ticket. I am mostly responsible for whatever ticket I have picked up and this responsibility includes; making sure with business analysts that the requirements are the same, involving quality assurance (testers) from the start of the ticket, getting the module to every environment (there are multiple bbc website environments include the live, user facing one) and helping and showing QA how they should test it.

I had 5 years of programming experience (from school and college) prior to joining the BBC but I had never done anything with Web before. Since I started I have developed on my already existing programming skills through work day to day but also the degree that I study one day a week as well. I have learnt good web development practices and have become proficient with javascript (a language i had never used before) since I started at work, and the degree has helped me learn Java better as well. I have also become a better and more confident public speaker as I have to talk infront of the whole team daily and this has led to me doing a talk infront of a wider BBC Sport audience of around 100 people.

I really love the programme I am on. The team I am in are really nice and we get along well and we go on socials quite a lot. The team has also really pushed me to improve but done so in a way where I have never felt inadequate and have never put me under any pressure to learn at a pace i dont think is feasible. The culture in my team is good as well. We don't have unrealistic goals set for us and it is a lot more relaxed than I was expecting.

I do feel valued by the BBC and especially my team in sport. I've felt this when the team asked me to do the talk on the new tables page (as they knew I knew more about it than anyone else in the team) and this made me feel trusted and valued. I've seen that I am valued by the Personal Development Review my team's line manager did with me. This is where everyone else in the team sends feedback to them and they repeat it back to me in an anonymous way. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive and this was really good to here. I also am now treated as a developer and not an apprentice developer which is really confidence boosting.

My programme is quite well structured. Especially at work as I am given all the support and training I need. I am also given time in work to do degree related studies and work which is really useful. I have organised meetings with both my line manager and my in-team line manager which is really helpful. The only part I would say isn't greatly organised is some of the parts of the apprenticeship with the university but this is always down to the university not communicating with my manager.

The support I get from the university is ok. Sometimes when I email in a problem they take a while to reply but I understand that they have loads of students to deal with. I haven't gone to anyone from the uni for pastoral support so I couldn't comment on that.

I have received a lot of support from the BBC. This includes access to lots of online web development and programming training courses which are all really helpful. Everyone in my team are also willing all the time to pause what they are working on to help me when I have an issue with whatever I am doing. I don't really have a defined mentor and have just done stints pairing with different people in the team to learn from them.

They meet my costs at the moment but that is because I live with parents in a town close to work and drive to work every day. At the moment on the salary I am on I would be unable to support myself if I were to leave my parents home.

Yes there are. Work related, I have been down to the london offices to meet other staff and i have been to a large conference in birmingham to talk to people about my apprenticeship. I have also joined a works five a side game that I play in every week and I go out for food or for other socials with people from work quite a lot.

Yes

It is a really good experience to work for such a fundamental company like the BBC. I've also learnt a lot more than I think I would have had I gone to university.

On the assessment day you do an interview, a group interview and a technical assessment. My advice for this day would to be relaxed and yourself and talk to the other people you meet there. If you get the job I would advice you to get stuck in, try everything and try to connect with the people around you as when you become friends with them, it makes the job a lot more of a fun place to be.