Digital Apprentice Review

During my role I have been involved in 2 different departments of the business. Firstly I started in PEH and now I'm working with the same few colleagues along with some more digital colleagues in a wider digital team. The smaller team is based in the Hospital BU. So far I have had great support from my line manager however due to many changes in the business, we haven't really begun any major projects until now. I would be used to business change once I'm in a full time role where I have more responsibilities but due to my only project opportunities coming from my line manager (due to the nature of an apprenticeship), if their work is quiet, my work is quiet. However, this has allowed me to make progress on my studying while the work is quieter and recently I have begun 2 bigger projects so this may improve.

I feel I have learned many new skills during my apprenticeship, especially within marketing. My studying side of the apprenticeship is where I learn most of the specific new skills such as HTML and coding in website building, SEO and PPC in marketing and even some business and marketing principles. I have also honed some of these skills in during my job roles in some projects I have completed. I have also have been involved in some great training opportunities such as advanced social media training,

I am enjoying the work side of my apprenticeship and slightly the studying side of it. The studying side of my apprenticeship has been really effected by how bad the training provider was, I was going to say at the beginning of my apprenticeship however this has only improved recently.

Regarding my work programme I would say it's slightly well-structured. Firstly you have to consider this is a marketing role so it's difficult to be structured, compared to a compliance role where you may review the same number of tasks every day etc. The only unstructured part is where I've been involved in tasks and they've had to stop due to business changes. In terms of studying I would say my programme is very structured in terms of the lectures and work I complete, I think it's good they can create a more "rushed" apprenticeship programme over 15 months HOWEVER this really does suit someone like me who's looking for fast and valuable experience before hopefully moving onto a full time role.

I feel that I receive a lot of support from my employer, whether it's being allowed study days/time to support at any time I require during working hours from my manager. There are also endless ways to receive help on lots of issues at Pfizer due to many thoughtful initiatives and programmes.

In the beginning the support was very poor from my designated skills coach as he seemed very new to the business and maybe needed more training before working on the front line with students. Luckily I'm proactive so I seeked help from various colleagues within Estio, however, I felt the communication process was very poor during the early stages (when I probably needed the communication the most at this stage). The support has improved now I have a new skills coach. In terms of my lecturer [This section of the comment has been removed by a member of the RateMyApprenticeship Team because it did not meet our site terms and conditions], I think he's a very good teacher and also responds to questions and requests for more resources.

I really do appreciate the skills I have learned from my training provider because it's great experience for someone who wants to utilise these skills. In terms of using them in my job role I would say they have very little correspondance. For example, my workplace doesn't using coding (we build websites on a portal), SEO and PPC is also something my team doesn't use. However, I'm not upset that they don't correspond, it would be cool if they did correspond with what I'm learning a bit more though.

At work I can participate in football on Wednesdays, I also have opportunities to represent Pfizer at careers fairs. I would say a lot of my training counts as extra curricular e.g. the social media training is something I'm not using currently in my role and also brand agency training isn't something I expected from Pfizer.

Yes

I think Pfizer as a company is a great company to work for in terms of how they support you as a business and I can understand why so many people want the company name as part of their career path as I can imagine it puts you in good stead. I would relish the opportunity to stay on at Pfizer and have my own responsibilities within a full time role.

I would always advice people to apply. Even if you don't meet every single job requirement, as long as you show your keen to learn and improve then you always have a chance of doing well in the application process. Pfizer also have many undergraduates and some other apprentices too so there's many other people having similar experiences.