Apprentice Review

This role has 3 stages of development, roughly corresponding to each year of University. These all involve rotating through different areas of the business as part of either a 6 month (Stage 1) or 9 month placement (Stages 2 & 3). Every area will give differing levels of responsibilities and tasks but overall, this role would involve gaining an understanding of an area and adding value by either picking up daily tasks for the team, freeing them up to do other tasks, or picking up some projects, or even both.

So far I have gained a good foundation in: understanding various sections of cyber security such as penetration testing requirements and analysis of a pentest report; the stages of a project life cycle, including testing stages and also within my university work, self-reflection and analysis; python; and how to analyse a business and give a recommendation based on their needs.

This programme has, so far, given me the opportunity to build a good understanding of a business in general, and more specifically, understanding and carrying out a project end to end. My team members have always given me lots of support and opportunities to learn and add value to projects. Overall, I really enjoy it.

As an apprentice, despite the fact I have generally the least experience within an area, I have found my contributions are taken on board and considered. I feel like I am trusted to take on responsibility and deliver alongside other members and that my newer perspective is sometimes even sought out specifically so I can provide a different viewpoint.

The overarching structure is well-organised; there is a 4.5 year plan that covers the whole apprenticeship, with term dates and submission deadline dates etc. We also have the start and end dates of our placements. The issue arises when entering a new placement, there is often ambiguity as to what specifically we can add to the area, especially when no other apprentice has been in the area before. This is probably due to the fact that this apprenticeship is still relatively new however, so I expect new apprentices joining from 2018 onwards won’t experience such issues.

BPP arranges regular skills days and ensures we have ample opportunity to give feedback on the course. There is also an Apprenticeships manager who is easy to contact and very helpful when reached out to for support. Help desk is also speedy, I didn’t have library access when I started and the issue was sorted within the hour of me emailing them.

We have an apprentice manager for the duration of the course and a line manager for each placement. There is also the Emerging Talent team who can escalate any issues up to BPP directly if required, and facilitate our learning by ensuring we are regularly given the opportunity to attend various training events.

Salary is reasonable considering a degree is included and meets living costs. Travel away from main site for work is covered by the business.

There are a number of existing communities that arrange events that help develop employees, and the opportunity to set up new ones if desired. Volunteering within the community is encouraged and an internal portal allows employees to search through a database for a range of opportunities. Some sites also have small onsite gyms. There are also networking and team building opportunities.

Yes

It’s an excellent route into work: it gives experience in conjunction with a degree. It allows you to build a range of skills across the huge variety of areas within the business, giving each apprentice a very unique skillset which is difficult to find in most employees. Most people cannot say that they have worked within Cyber Security, and then the Chief Data Office, then within Programme Delivery, in Service Delivery etc etc.

RESEARCH. Ensure you know exactly why you are applying for this specific role at this specific bank. Why Santander? Why not another apprenticeship? What can you personally add, what is your unique skillset? In addition, what is your general knowledge of T&O, what do you know about cyber, about data, about engineering? You need some basis of knowledge of all 3 areas, but if you’re passionate about one in particular, definitely communicate this.