Creative Apprentice Review

Working on the Consumer Products EMEA team under the direction of Creative Services Studio & Production Manager. My responsibilities include: • Creating apparel & homeware concepts to support the creative needs of key European Retailers & licensees including Primark, ASDA & Lidl. • Involved with the development and creation of style-guides whilst maintaining brand integrity for WB franchises such as Harry Potter, Batman, Looney Tunes & Friends. • Research current trends & create mood boards to influence fresh, on-trend designs. • Design support to the creative team, encompassing Fashion & Homeware, Health & Beauty, Toy & Games. • Artworking files to prepare for the production of high impact creative projects.

Learnt from the WB internal training courses provided for interns & apprentices for example, presentation skills, project management, introspection into my own personality and how it can impact my career. Additionally, I've learnt from involvement in day to day tasks such as meetings, processes of how the team operate, communication & relationship building skills. Furthermore, from a creative point of view how design projects are carried out from start to finish and finding sources of inspiration.

I thoroughly enjoy my programme. The work is almost always fun, especially working on creating new graphics for style guides and responding to creative briefs from retailers. I find since the nature of the industry we are in is entertainment, the work and company culture is fun and comes as an exciting place to work! Personally, I love working on my team as my colleagues are positive, interesting and inspiring people. I feel very supported by them and would be comfortable to talk about any issues or problems with them if I needed to. Additionally, I truly feel respected, and valued as a member of the team.

My induction was very structured and I was introduced to all of the systems I use today thoroughly in my first couple of weeks. I felt very supported in this time and comfortable to ask if I needed help. In terms of my time in the WB office, I am given daily tasks by my manager or my team and feel like a team member as opposed to an apprentice - which I like as I wouldn't want my job title to limit the work I chose to take on or the responsibilities I could be given. However, my college side of the role has been less structured. Unfortunately, I have found myself disappointed with the course as it has all been self taught and self driven by me. New City College have been very unorganised and given me the feeling like I've been forgotten. This is why I chose to take action and start driving the course myself in order to complete it, otherwise I feel it just wouldn't happen. At work, I have weekly 1 to 1's with my manager which help as we catch up on how I'm getting on, my workload and gives me a chance to raise anything I wish to discuss.

I receive a great deal of support at work. I find my team are always keen to praise my performance, or give me constructive feedback which I find invaluable. Any issues I have raised with my manager or HR has been resolved.

I feel disappointed with New City College as I have experienced a real lack of support from them. I found that because the college were so unorganised with my enrolment, teaching and course I had no option but to take the initiative to drive the course myself and self teach. This is a real shame as I was hoping to learn from the college course, but instead have felt let down.

I honestly feel like I haven't learnt anything from the college that has helped me in my role. This is a real shame as I was so open and excited to start a design course, but the reality of the course is has added no value to my learning. For one, the course is Level 2 so is the equivalent to a GCSE. Also, the course feels very much like work you would complete at school, not simulating 'real life' industry work.

There is a large network of interns and apprentices at WB who are mostly all sociable. With this comes opportunities to make new friends which I have found a really enjoyable part of my job. We would meet regularly at lunch times, go for drinks after work and meet up at weekends. There are also networking event opportunities at WB.

Yes

I truly believe its a fantastic company to work for. The company culture makes working a fun, positive and really enjoyable experience where you can look forward to going to work every morning. There are so many benefits so you feel well looked after at WB. For example, there are loads of opportunities to experience amazing events and invaluable training that you wouldn't receive working at other companies.

Try to make yourself stand out by going the extra mile to prove how much you want the opportunity. It's a competitive process so you need to clearly show what makes you a better candidate from the next person. For the assessment day in particular: Be engaged, enthusiastic & ask questions Be confident but always humble Demonstrate your talents Prove that you are a good team player but can also take initiative in situations