Business Administration Apprentice Review

Secretarial support to senior management which includes inbox and diary management, room booking, meeting planning and booking travel and transport. Additionally, I assist with IT issues and requests, answering general queries from shared inboxes and helping with stationery orders/ management. I also produce SRPs and ensure pass compliance on site.

I have learned how to professionally write a business email, how to greet people on the phone in a professional manner as well as take a detailed message when on the phone. I have also improved my team working skills as well as my presentation skills like speaking to large groups of people and creating clear and concise graphics.

I have enjoyed moving around the business and learning about all the different jobs that are included under the admin umbrella. I have also enjoyed networking and meeting new people as I have found these connections have come in handy at a later date. I have also enjoyed some of the teams I have worked in as they have been very welcoming and kind, especially in my 2nd placement.

There has been not much organisation over the 2 years as our original co-ordinator has not been very organised and often only communicated us at the last minute or if we've pestered him to let us know - this was especially bad when it came to moving placements. However, the programme has recently been taken over by a new team. I cannot comment on how they have worked as I haven't seen how they work/ how effective they are at doing this.

They have put the appropriate measures in place to support my medical condition by making medical aware of my conditions, having regular one to ones with me and making sure that I feel comfortable speaking to them about any problems I am having at work. In a medical emergency they were very supportive and helped me a lot.

To be honest the training provider left much to be desired. We only met with them once a month and a lot of the time we were preparing or taking exams for our course. I felt very demotivated and ended up behind my predicted progress. I didn't end up getting any support for this and caught up in my own time (eventually).

I do not think that my qualification has made any difference whatsoever in my working day or in any of the roles I have undertaken. My company has trained me in these and I have learned everything from my colleagues/ mentors. The only thing I think was useful was the unit we studied on employment law as it is good to know what your rights were.

There are no sports activities available to us. However, I currently sit on the apprentice council as the secretary. This is very similar to the school council - we discuss issues that apprentices are having and look at the logistics of planning various community events which can equal money raised for charity.

Yes

At the end of the day, not everything is great at SL (some of the placements were poorly matched to apprentices), travel is long and very tiring and parking is horrific. But the majority of the people are very nice and very welcoming and are happy to give you a hand if you get stuck on a task or if you are unsure about something. Also, it offers the best pay for apprentices in the area which often increases yearly which is nice.

Make sure that you are completely honest in your application as they will find out if you have bent the truth and that you try and sell yourself - people are very modest, which is a lovely trait but it will not get you noticed as there is a lot of applicants that apply and not very many places to be filled.