Project Management Apprentice Review

I currently look at scheduling within certain teams in my project. I plan the dates for certain systems that are required, and then use this to track where the business is on and off track. I am also responsible for taking actions from my meetings that attend to, which are inserted in to a tracker and sent out to the people involved.

Yes. This is my first job in project management, so everything that I currently do I have learned from scratch. There are certain skills such as communication and team work that I have developed, due to the fact I am working in a fast paced environment surrounded by people that can help me with my work.

I had a slow start to my apprenticeship, this is because there were issues with management resulting in me having a lack of work to do for the first couple of months. However this issue has hopefully been solved now, giving me work now. The work that I currently do is enjoyable, which helps me to stay motivated on a week to week basis. I am excited to be starting university as my course should allow me to take information from my lecture and use it directly in the office environment.

The programme is very well structured. From an early careers manager, to skills coaches there is a very wide structure to help aid apprentices within the company. The programme allows me to spend 4 days a week in my placement doing hands on work, whilst I also spend 1 day a week at university allowing me to develop my understanding in project management.

Despite my issues at the start with the lack of work in my placement, after speaking to the early careers manager I felt supported as they were ready to make changes to benefit my experience. If I have any general enquires, or problems outside of work then my employer is more than prepared to discuss matters with me.

I receive a fair amount of support from our training provider. We have upcoming learning days to inform us about key project management / project control aspects. Because of the fact that the company pays for our education, my placement allows me to base my tasking around my university day / work so that I can balance all aspects of the programme and still get work done.

I have only just started my university course so it is quite hard to explain, however the key skills that were outlined in my first lectures were communication and presenting. These are skills that I need to develop, therefore allowing me to practice these in university will better me by the time that I come back to the workplace. The general idea of general tasking that is practised in university will help me to become more independent at work, taking more responsibility for myself.

There are many. There are sports teams dotted around my place of work due to a high percentage of the people here having a naval background, there are also many social events regarding achievements at work. BAE encourages us to arrange social activities with other colleagues as we spend a lot of time with each other at work. There are activities such as quiz nights in the workplace that occur on a weekly basis.

Yes

Because BAE systems is a massive world wide company that can potentially offer you endless opportunities. The fact that I will spend four 1 year placements working on completely different projects across the workplace will allow me to gain a taster of which aspects of the company I enjoy, and which ones that I don't. This in turn gives me a platform to develop my project management skills in 4 years.

Do your research in to the company. Have a look at the products and services that BAE systems offer, and think if you would be interested having some involvement with that. Make sure you are willing to work hard in an area that you may not be familiar with, as I have had to learn basic aspects of engineering to be able to perform project management in my current placement.