Associate Scientist Review

I work as an associate scientist in Immuno-oncology at AZ. I test pre-clinical drugs using a model called the tissue slice culture. I support many different AZ drugs and deliver data to the project team leaders. I put the drugs on fresh human tumours and record changes to the tissue.

I have learnt many lab based skills such as Tissue Slice Culture, Cell culture, flow cytometery, spectral flow cytometry, RNA based techniques, immunoassays such as ELISA and MSD, and how to isolate human blood cells. I have improved my organisational and public speaking skills, and have learnt how to interact in a scientific environment.

I enjoy the program and the actual work I do greatly. The culture at AZ is becoming increasingly corporate however, and the scientists can feel massively under valued by the company and treated like robots. I feel the amount I put into my role isn't often appreciated by the infrastructure or credited by higher levels.

Reasonably well organsied and structured. Previously the organisation by the university of kent has been very poor, but this seems to be improving. Communication from the university of kent has also improved somewhat. The structure of the course is influenced mostly by the unversity rather than by AZ. It is improving.

I recieve a lot of support from my employer but they also demand a lot from me. I am treated as a fellow scientist, working at a very similar level, with a similar work load as scientists that have PhDs. This is good to have responsibility but sometimes I feel under valued. My employer is always supportive if I find the work is too much though.

The support from the training providr has been exceptionally poor. The course itself is of terrible quality with many sections clearly copied and pasted from wikipedia and constant typos and gramatical errors. The pastoral support from the training provider is currently good, but over the course of my experience with Kent it has been poor.

The qualification does nothing to help my role. The course content is exceptionally poor in structure and quality. I have not learnt anything that has helped my job. I learn the content for exams and then immediately forget it, so the qualification feels like a hoop I have to jump through.

There are many extra curricular activities. there are societies to promote causes, sports clubs, young careers socials, workshops, symposiums, apprentice committees, and more. These opportunities continued in a virtual fashion during covid. I am always too busy with work to take much advantage of them but if I wanted to I could.

No

Currently the culture is horrible. Scientists are treated as disposable and not valued as people. The people I work with are lovely but everyone is over worked and under valued. This is an AZ issue rather than an apprenticeship issue though. The Kent course is awful, I can not even put into words how bad it is and the incompetence of the people who have put it together.

Research the area in which you want to apply and show interest in every way you can. The company is not looking for a finished product, but for someone who will wpork hard and who has potential. Show transferable skills and be keen and enthusiastic. They are looking for somone to invest in and develop