Operations Degree Apprentice Review

My role day to day varies significantly. I am responsible for updating a number of measures, drawing upon figures to great these measures on a weekly basis. I also must run and organise meetings, so the legwork behind this takes considerable time. I also have university work to do and am given some time to research and write essays for example.

I would say I have developed a lot of my skills as opposed to learning radically new skills. Skills such as presenting, time-management and communication have been developed through experience and training inputs. I have also developed my IT skills and this has enabled me to access things on excel for example that I previously haven't been able to.

I enjoy the devloopment opportunites such as the learnings taken from my degree programme. I also enjoy attending courses and applying any new skills I have developed in the workplace. However, I don't enjoy being used as a resource and instructed to undertake activities which are not inline with my interests or development.

Despite in theory having a clear structure the program is disorganised and has certainly does not represent the program we signed up for. Our program has been set aside on multiple occasions in order for us to be used as a resource to try to complete gaps in the business for example.

There is high level support in theory available in terms of development opportunities being available if required such as attending courses. However, we are basically left a lone to try to complete our objectives and there is little support or guidance around these, so with the majority of activities there is little support

We receive support during the weeks of study, however, given the nature of being a distance learner we struggle to receive much support outside of these weeks. Email communication is our main means of support so in this respect it is limited and we cannot access a lot of the resources available

I do not feel that it directly relates to my apprentice role but that it will be useful in the future due to the general business overview it provides. There are some modules which are quite closely related but I do not feel a noticeable improvement in my performance on the job as a result of my degree.

There are no formal extra curricular activities to get involved with. Those that do occur are organised by ourselves and are normally just social events as opposed to sporting. We can attend networking events during work time but they are only there to get involved with if we organise them, there are no official events laid on for us.

No

I would recommend working in some aspects of the business given what I hear about our programs and the work which they do. However, I do not enjoy many aspects of my role and it was not what I thought I signed up for therefore in this respect I would not

Think carefully about the day to day reality of what you will be doing and if you want to work in the environment. Really compare to your alternatives and think about your reasons for joining, could they be better met by doing something else. If not, then look at the business principles and try to apply these in your application.