Business support Administrator Review

My role is to support the management team in my pod. This involves various administration jobs such as, booking meetings, creating and monitoring spreadsheets, assigning and updating cases, organising team engagements, putting together reports and presentations, training and coaching others on systems such as pg online and phoenix and controlling finance budgets. Microsoft is probably the most used system in the whole apprenticeship. Spreadsheets happened to be the most used for me but PowerPoint and word are widely used throughout the organisation.

I have learnt so many new skills. I have come out of this apprenticeship as a new person. My confidence is what has grown a lot as well as my leadership skills. This apprenticeship has made me an excel pro and has given me the skills to teach and coach others. Problem solving, resilience and organisation are the top 3 skills that i have learnt and developed. My main aim when starting this apprenticeship was to gain many skills and develop my learning. This is exactly what this apprenticeship has done for me,

I am thoroughly enjoying the programme i am doing now with Financial Ombudsman. There has ben a crazy amount of support along the way from managers, mentors, colleagues, apprentices and apprenticeship providers. I have never felt alone when i have become stuck on a certain aspect of the apprenticeship. The apprenticeship has flown by so quick and has not been as hard as i thought it would have been. I am really looking forward to receive my apprenticeship qualification in the next months.

The level 3 apprenticeship programme with the Financial Ombudsman is very well structured and organised. Straight away we had an into meeting with the apprenticeship provider who went through what will be expected and needed throughout the course. We then had one to one meetings with our apprenticeship provider mentor once a month going through our module worksheets and talking about any off the job training we have done with the Financial Ombudsman. In the workplace it is very organised and structured in general. Every pod has one to one meetings, management meeting and pod meetings all booked in.

The support us apprentices receive from our employer, Financial Ombudsman is truly unbelievable. I feel so lucky and grateful to work with colleagues i have. Everyone from managers, mentors, colleagues and apprenctices have been so helpful. From day 1 it has been stressed how important it is to ask questions and take care of mental healthy. Our employer really care for our mental health, we have councillors, lunch time clubs and reward and recognition in place to keep our work to life balance healthy.

The support received from out apprenciship training provider, lifetime training has been good. We have one to one meetings every month to go through our apprenciship modules, off the job training and any questions or concerns we may have. As we are coming to the end of our apprenticeship and exams creep up closer many of us have felt stressed and had worries, however, our apprenticeship providers always responds to emails promptly and has organised group meetings to go through nay of our concerns or questions.

The qualification reived from my apprenciship training provider has helped me perform better in my role. It has taught me many skills that i don't use in my current role but this has not bothered me as i can now use the skills learnt in future opportunities in my career. I would say i have learnt more skills from the work experience from my actual employer compared to my training provider when it has come to business admin tasks and transferable skills.

Financial Ombudsman have so many clubs, groups and networks to join that take place mainly at lunch time. These groups have meetings and events normally once a week or once a fortnight. I am part of the Women's network and also the Christian network, however, we also have book clubs, sports clubs, carers network, embrace network, parents network, LGBT network , Sikh network, Jewish network ,Muslim network, Hindu Network, mental wellbeing network and enable network that supports anyone with a disability.

Yes

Financial Ombudsman is the most amazing place to work, They are welcoming, inclusive fair and a company who really care for their staff. They want their staff to feel happy and important. The make sure we take our annual leave and have a healthy work to life balance. Each pod has a budget for team days out and recognition gifts such as vouchers which can be used at multiple stores and restaurants. Everyone is friendly, supportive and I am so grateful to work for this company.

If you are lucky enough to work for Financial Ombudsman do not be afraid to ask questions. Asking questions is the best way to learn and everyone is so supportive, friendly and happy to help. Take in as much experience as you can and try and learn as much as possible while you have this amazing opportunity. When applying be yourself and show your personality. This company is very inclusive and respects everyone for who they are. You will not regret applying for this company.