Personal Assistant Review

On a day to day basis my role involves providing personal assistant and administrative support for three senior staff members with the North West office of Health Education England. This involves basic diary management such as management of diary clashes, organising meetings, minuting, proof reading, management of invoices, management of adhoc projects and distribution of information.

There is a much larger variety of meetings that I am in charge of organising and administering from beginning to end in comparison to previous roles I have had. I have developed my minuting skills and have learnt how to manage break out rooms. I have developed my knowledge of invoicing and budgets. I have also developed a deeper understanding of funding within the NHS.

I am enjoying my apprenticeship and the new learning opportunities that this is providing me with. I haven't necessarily enjoyed each individual unit of this programme; for example I haven't enjoyed the emotional intelligent aspect in the early stages as I feel like I haven't been able to delve into the actual content of the programme as of yet.

My programme is very well organised and structured. I like the bud platform that Paragon use as this allows me to clearly see what I am expected to complete and when by, what units I have coming up and how I am progressing in comparison to my time on the programme so far.

I receive a lot of support from my employer. They were very happy for me to start an apprenticeship and encouraged me to explore my options in regards to what programmes I might enjoy. They also provide me with one full day of protected learning time, which can be taken as a full day or split across the week, as I see fit.

I have received lots of support from my personal tutor, [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] . She is very approachable and quick to respond to any queries I have for her. She explained the whole programme very clearly and is happy to go through any queries I have more than once if I feel a little lost.

I feel that this qualification is definitely allowing me to not only perform better in my own role, but progress onto the role I would like to see myself in in the next couple of years. The programme is helping me to understand myself and my colleagues better, as well as see how they see me and how I could be an effective manager.

I haven't yet been involved in any extra-curricular activities at work, but this is mostly down to me only having been with HEE for the last four months and spending most of this time settling into my role. However, I am aware of many people networks that HEE run and I would be interested to become involved with the Women's Network.

Yes

Health Education England are a very supportive employer and have a real focus on the wellbeing of their employees. I have never felt as supported at work as I do now. HEE's attitude is reflected through their employees and, overall, this provides a very open and positive working environment. They really live up to the "best employer" recognition that they strive for.

I would advise anyone applying for Health Education England to approach it with an open mind. At first I was actually slightly shocked by how nice and supportive everyone was and I felt bit overwhelmed by this having come from very fast paced, high pressure environments in the past. It takes a little while to settle into this massive change in pace, but once you do it's lovely!