Apprentice Science Technician Review

Providing technical support to the school science department, prepping experiments, providing administrative support, and also further acting as a teaching assistant to support in some science lessons where extra technical guidance is required (e.g specialist knowledge of equipment). Following safeguarding, H&S, COSHH, COMAH, DSEAR, and other regulations, working to meet the standard of the curriculum

I have learnt and developed many laboratory specific skills, including, creating standard solutions, working to deadlines, organisational ability, working via aseptic technique, and working to set set standard of work. This also developed personal skills such as adapting to abrupt/unexpected changes, and multitasking a wide range of tasks/jobs at a time

I thoroughly enjoy the program so far, all of the content is relevant to my work, interesting, and I have feel very supported throughout my whole course

The programme has a very clear and set structure as well as allowing flexibility as to when certain aspects of the course needs to be completed e,g, can focus on one of the 2+ embedded courses if required such as due to inability to carry out certain activities at certain times, it is very easy to plan & get ahead on work to be at a pace beyond where expected

I receive a good amount of support from my employer, on top of the minimum coursework time I am entitled to each week, we constantly try to find ways to use my day-to-day jobs as evidence of my OTJ learning hours to help ensure I am staying up-to-date

I very large amount of support is given from LMP, there are regular meetings to check on progress, tutorial sessions on more advanced modules and even further interesting pieces of information given from my tutor e.g. I am doing a science related course so sites/apps where there is recent news towards STEM areas have been signposted in case I see anything of interest to read about

The qualification(s) that make up my apprenticeship has always been relevant towards my work and if not applicable straight away, they are relevant to tasks I would eventually take on in the future, or in other settings carrying out the same role

Due to covid I am not aware of there being many extra-curricular activities but since easing of restrictions there has been smaller scale activities introduced such as invites to play golf together, For me specifically there is access towards extra training through CLEAPSS and if I find any ways to develop professionally, I have been allowed to take time away to pursue this

Yes

All of the prior mentioned reasons, I feel incredibly supported through my programme and enjoy it thoroughly!

Keep a to do list of tasks and when they are due so you can keep a clear outline of when you need to do each task as it is useful to have an easy access sheet instead of logging into the e-portfolio site, and to remember a lot of things make up off the job hours so be sure to list them!