Apprentice Aspiring Leader Review

I am currently an Aspiring Leaders Apprentice at British Airways this entails a four year course with one day each week dedicated towards university studies at Buckinghamshire New University. At university I am studying business management. The other four days of the week I am on rotational placements around the business gaining experience from various sectors

During my short time on the course I believe I have already developed some core skills which I am happy to say I’ll be able to transfer to future placements. My last placement was within the terminal as a customer experience representative and I highly improved my communication and customer service skills during this time along with time management as I had to balance university studies with changing shift patterns

I am currently loving the programme. There’s is plenty of variety to the course and we have a large influence of what we can get out of the programme for example suggestions to particular placements or teams we would like to work for in the near future. We also are given sufficient time each week to maintain on track with studies

The course in my opinion is fairly well structured. The university and company are very flexible to changes in our programme which is a useful thing. As I said previously the course is almost dictated by us by the looks of things which will help put personal career development so to that extent I would say the programme is well organised

The employer is fantastic with giving support and we often have meetings with our line manager to discuss the programme and our progression. There is also a large support network within the business so there is always someone you are able to lean on for advice or support. We also have dedicated support networks at work

There is a decent amount of support from our university lecturer. We are able to book time in with our lecturer to discuss our work and assignments however it is a little difficult seeing as we do not have that much face to face contact time together. Although it is clear they are there to help whether that is online

I feel as if the current modules we are studying have been a big help for us to perform better in our role. We have just finished the module of self review and self reflection which was a useful task for me to understand areas of weakness and areas of strength that can be brought into my role

Yes, there are plenty of opportunities for extra curricular events at work. We have a large charity organisation called flying start which is in partnership with comic relief that is always having an event on to raise money for our charity. For example abseiling down the orbital to a charity touch rugby 7s tournament at Twickenham

Yes

British airways is a simply fantastic place to work and develop. In my very short space of time within the organisation I have been exposed to so fantastic opportunities. In each of my placements my team have been very friendly and I have learnt lots from each and everyone of them which I look forward to taking with me to other placements

The biggest piece of advice I would give to someone applying to BA is let your passion for the aviation industry come across in your interview. Do your research about the company and the future of it for example the introduction of sustainable aviation fuel and finally to just be yourself