Project Support Apprentice Review

My role at Colt is Project Support Apprentice. And my main duties and responsibilities of my day to day tasks involve raising purchase requisitions and purchase orders on behalf of project managers, action tracking in the weekly team huddle, producing the weekly time booking compliance report which is sent to senior management, production of the weekly line and project managers report, managing and governing non-PPT projects in various tools and I also look after Security resources that forecast their time and effort to projects.

I have learnt many new skills as well as developing exisiting skills such as managing expectations both in the team and with our customers and stakeholders. I have also learnt more about the companies organisational purpose, aims and vision for the future. I have developed skills such as talking on the phone, being proactive, prioritising tasks and communication through emails, over the phone and face to face.

Overall the Colt apprentice programme has been a very good experience and they have acknowledged my experience by coaching me and really supporting me to learn best practice at work which I will now be able to use and develop on throughout my career. I have really enjoyed being on this programme as I have learnt so much from the team and working for Colt has been a very good experience as I settled into my job role very quickly due to the very friendly and helpful people that work here.

The overall the programme run by Colt is very organised and structured in my opinion as I have always been given enough work as well as being given opportunities to take on new tasks and activities which have so far all been successful. It is well structured due to the early careers team which makes it easy for Colt apprentices to refer to incase of any doubt. The only area which I do not find organised or structured is the External company which Colt uses for the Apprenticeship learning (BPP).

I recieve alot of support from my employer and team as they understand my experience and are very willing to help me develop myself and career. I have always been able to easily get support from my manager, early careers team or PMO team when I need it and I even have regular meetings with my manager and team members where I am able to get support on any issues or queries I have.

In the beginning of my qualification with the BPP I receieved almost no support. It started to get better after getting a new skills coach but yet again I definitly do not get the right support. Even when I ask questions, responses are slow (if any response) and questions are never answered in full as it seems like they are never able to give an answer maybe due to some uncertainty they have.

For me personally I have not felt like the qualification with the BPP has helped me to perform better in my job role. Everything I have learnt and areas that I have developed in are all because of the support I am given from Colt employees and not due to the training provider. Overall the experience I have had with the BPP has not been very good as the missions I have undertaken are all related to things I have learnt at Colt and not through the apprenticeship provider.

Yes there are many activities that employees can get involved with at Colt. This would include the annual charity bike ride, JP Mogan runs, various CSR events such as work experience or charity events. They also are very good at setting up profession networking events in the office where all areas and teams can get together and have professional conversation.

Yes

I would recommend Colt Technologies to a friend or family member as I have gained a lot of experience here so far and the employees here have very good work ethics and Culture is very important at the company. Everyone at Colt is very friendly and welcoming as well as the office enviroment is really nice to work in. So overall for me the experience has only been very good so I would definitly recommend my friends to work at Colt.

My tips and advice for anyone applying to Colt is to allow yourself to speak your ideas as I have found Colt is very postive about any development ideas or ways to make processes or the work environment better. I would also advise to be youself and talk to everyone and make a postive engagement to the different cultures. Another tip would also be is to show how you can bring a postive and uplifting and inspiring contribution to a team which will help you succeed at Colt.