Degree Apprentice Review

Degree apprentice doing testing. I prepare tests, talk to a variety of stakeholders, and assist others with preparation. I have worked on one project and have done a lot of quite repetitive copy and paste type work. I have learnt some skills but they are mostly just repetitive tasks.

Not any important hard skills, mainly transferable skills like stakeholder interaction.

It is alright, quite low stress, but not really very challenging. They tell you initially you can take your career in whatever direction you want, but that is not really true. Most of us get stuck on one project and it is incredibly difficult to move and try new things. It is very hard to push your career in the direction you want.

The university side is well structured, but on the work side they throw you onto a project and you are just treated as any other employee, no help to move on and develop your career. They would really benefit from having rotations in place.

They support when needed, not really any meaningful support in terms of progressing me on to new roles. This is something I have pushed for a lot and put a lot of effort into, but still nothing.

Support from my university is good, and they can make time for you if you need to talk to them.

My qualification has not really impacted my role. My day-to-day role does not have anything to do with what I learn at university.

Social activities have been good, but are less often after Covid.

No

It depends what you want. It is a great company to cruise along and collect a pay check. But if you are more interested in developing your career, trying different roles and working in areas you are interested in, probably not for you. The work is often quite uninteresting and you will just have to accept that there is not much in the way of progression at all.

Really consider what you want from a degree apprenticeship. Is it just the degree, or more than that?