HR apprentice Review

My job title is HR apprentice. I work within the talent and team and help to advice with apprenticeships and graduate schemes. My daily tasks involved making sure that all our information is up to date that we have on apprentices. Keeping track on our preferred training providers and keeping track of where we are with agreements. I interact daily with training providers to gain information on apprenticeship courses and where we are with on boarding new apprentices. I constantly communicate internally via email to managers about apprentices, understanding what they are looking for from a training provider and then suggesting one that suits their needs. I communicate also with other staff who are helping to enroll apprentices and making sure all the correct documents are in place. I have responsibility of our DAS account which involves the funding for apprentices. Also responsible for making sure details are up to date on multiple spreadsheets. I have involvement with a few projects one being working out all across our business how many apprentices we have and who has finished their apprenticeship.

I am currently gaining an NVQ qualification in business administration. I receive external training from my college where I have attended training courses on 3 different units. This has helped to develop my professional skills on knowledge and best practice. Some of the course content includes filing, business administration, principles of business, finance, presentation etc. This has all helped my professional development along with my personal development, helping my confidence and communication skills. I have received little internal training. I did however receive presentation training which was really beneficial and enormously helped my confidence and communication skills. A lot of my training takes place within my work by completing units in a course work like manor. This has helped me develop my writing skills and helped my learn new skills as I do my own research and use my team to provide information. Overall I have learnt a variety of skills which help with my day to day role, whilst also gaining the knowledge behind different practices.

I enjoy working with my team as they are highly skilled and help provide me with support in both my everyday role and units taken at college. The team are all really nice and have a strong company culture of making sure everyone helps each other. I enjoy working with my team as they are all understanding of the fact that I am not as experienced as themselves. They provide me with a variety of tasks which I enjoy getting involvement with a mix of work. At first it didn't meet my expectations as I was given little work as they were unsure of my capabilities. Now I have been able to prove myself through my work I am enjoying the work more and like being given more responsibility.

I am starting to gain more value within Engie. As I gain experience I am starting to gain more responsibility and understanding which helps to add value to myself within the team. When first joining you can feel not valued as I haven't previously worked in this kind of role and felt like I was only given easy tasks to do as they didn't know what my capabilities were. This can then make you feel under valued. Now however, I do feel more valued as the work I do for my colleagues they are grateful for and ask me to do more tasks. I now have some of my own projects which also contributes to helping feel valued within the team.

My induction was well organised as I was shown round the building and was introduced to the team as soon as I joined. My training at college was well structured and I was able to prepare before I went and the courses ran well. My studying within my work can sometimes be unorganised as in busy periods sometimes college works gets ignored and done at a later date. The structure of getting each individual unit complete is a bit unclear. My manager is very support and always offers to help out with units if needed. They understand fully that I need time to complete work. My meetings with my skills coach are quite unorganised, I never know what we are going to be doing in the meeting and sometimes can be time consuming. They don't typically have much structured but does allow for time to go through units and discuss what needs to be done. My task delegation from my mentor is well structured, when units are smaller I get allocated more than one so that I have a suitable period of time to complete them. Task delegation within my team varies. Sometimes I can be overwhelmed with work and sometimes I may have little work. The hierarchy has improved, but it does still exist. My experience is the company is helping to blur the lines in hierarchy as I am slowly being given more independent tasks. Overall, there is a mix of organisation of the programme. When I attended college this was very well structured however now it is mainly course work it feels a bit unorganised.

I receive a lot of support from my skills coach. They make support easily accessible as they reply to emails quickly and make sure there are regular meetings which help provide support and guidance. Guidance with problems can be provided from a variety of staff from my training provider and everyone I have communicated generally want to help and offer their support where appropriate. I enjoy the support I have given as I don't feel like I've been left alone to deal with the units and can get support where needed.

My manager and team are very supportive. They always offer support and help to provide guidance on how my work correlates with my day to day role. Within my general role I know I can easily receive support from a variety of people who are willing to give support. I have a mentor within my work who has been very supportive as she is well experienced and helps to provide solutions on how to deal with problems. I believe everyone is open to supporting me where needed as they understand that I am not as skilled as themselves.

My salary meets my costs very well. Engie preferably go by national living wage which means it is easier to meet my costs. My travel costs is covered by my wage and although personally I didn't need it I know that engie do provide a scheme where you can pay back your annual pass monthly. This makes it more manageable to pay for travel expenses. My daily costs are very little, I only really need to buy lunch on a day to day basis and this is covered by my salary. My social costs are also covered by my salary and I can afford to go out with my friends quite often. However, if I wasn't living at home then I don't know how well all of these costs would be covered.

There are very little opportunities outside of work. We have had one or two company events that I have attended but outside of that I have not been aware of other events since I have joined. We do have a few activities that go on with apprenticeships and our graduate students which I am able to get involvement with. We run a voluntary scheme where we are given 15 hours of voluntary time. The scheme isn't something that engie stress about so I have only recently been made aware of it and don't know many people who have actually had involvement with volunteering work. We also have a gym pass opportunity which gives gym memberships for cheaper however this is done individually and isn't available near my home. When I wasn't working I was going out with my friends and looking for opportunities to work. I have had a weekend job since I was 16 so have always been involved within a work environment.

Yes

I think Engie provide a great way of getting into a career that you want. They are very understanding of career development and provide ways on how you can develop professional and personally. However, I would only recommend to people who want to work in a professional office environment as the office isn't really for being social. I believe that they know how to meet your needs in terms of your development plan and offer a wide variety of opportunities and projects that you can get involved with. They are a big company so they can provide a variety of different sectors that you can gain knowledge and involvement from. A wide majority of employees have worked for the company for a long time so can provide support where needed.

I applied through my training provider who matched me to the job. You can apply directly through our site which has job opportunities on it. I would say make sure your CV has been well developed and looks professional. For the interview make sure you dress professionally and look the part. This will help demonstrate you are serious about the job and make you look professional. Make sure you have also done your research on the company and try to include your research within your answers, this helps to show you are well prepared and have a interest in the company. With the on boarding process make sure any forms are filled out and sent off quickly as it demonstrated you are well organised and keen. Any opportunities that come up, make sure you grab with both hands. Getting involved with a variety of work will help you to develop professional and personally. This will help with your experience and helps you learn more about the company. I would of liked to have been told that the work through your training provider is more than expected. You have to be able to balance your time effectively as it can be time consuming.