Project Management Apprentice Review

Varies greatly depending on what placement you are in (we do four, six month placements over the course of 2 years). Will mainly be adhoc tasks depending on what stage the project is in. Tasks can range from solely managing a small project by yourself, to printing out documents and stapling them for meetings.

I have learnt a lot of theory around project management, and through observation have learnt how a project runs and the various stages throughout a project. I have also had first hand experience with communicating to stakeholders, thus improving my communication skills. I have attended some internal training which has improved my skills with internal processes and software used.

On the whole, I would say its been ok, but it completely depends on what placement you are in. I've had previous placements where I've felt very low and dread coming into work as I haven't fit in with the team at all. But my current placement I feel more valued and I find it better. I think you'll find it difficult if you have aren't very outgoing in nature, as its a programme that requires you to be a confident self-starter.

I would say badly. We are put into placements with no plan, not even so much as a template with objectives to fill in etc. I've been put into a placement where I've literally sat at a desk doing nothing for a week whilst they scrap together some work for me to do. Although I have had managers take it upon themselves to plan out my placement very well, but there is no universal structure across the programme. When I first started I was very shocked, as even retail jobs I've had give a short training structure for the first 2 weeks. It takes some adjusting to if you've worked before, as its totally different to a normal day-to-day job in my opinion. After a while you get used to self starting your own work - ie. always asking for more work when you run out. (this was just a very strange concept to me!)

Again, depends on your placement. Some placement managers are open and want to support you and others don't even bother to have 1-2-1s with you or meet with you. At the moment I am confident if I went to my placement manager they would try hard to support me. As far as wider support from our apprentice line manager and the business, it is quite good. TfL offer support in a wide variety of ways, should you need it.

Very limited. We are supposed to have a face-to-face meetings with our skills coach every 8 weeks but this doesn't happen, these are often replaced with 5 minute phone calls which are not the same. In our first year we attend training every 2/3 months, and I will say our teacher was very good. On the whole though the training provider QA is inconsistent and doesn't offer much support on your portfolio work.

I think it does relate closely to the work, and I reckon more so when we role off our schemes and begin owning our own projects. The coursework also forces us to complete more complex tasks that we might not have completed normally in our day-to-day jobs which is good.

There's quite a few in the way of networking events and talks. There's also a lot of groups you can join for example LGBT, Faith and BAME. Its not common for TfL to organise socials (ie free Christmas parties, drinks) as we are public funded, this will be up to team members to set up their own events, so this depends on how social you current team is.

Yes

I believe TfL is on the whole a good company to work for, like every company it has its flaws but the opportunities are vast and we are offered a lot of good benefits that you won't get at other companies. There is lots of potential to grow as its such a large business with so many different avenues you can take.

I would say don't expect to be hand-held, and come with a can-do attitude. You get as much as you give into the programme, so if you sit back and keep quiet you won't get much from the scheme and can be left in the background. But if you are confident and keep asking for more work, you'll be recognised for this.