Apprentice Administrator Review

I work in admin for a charity organisation called Action for Children, which provides help and support for children and families. This can be from finances, like paying for school uniforms. To mental health support for a child/young person. In my role as admin, we are at the centre of everything that happens here. We help practitioners with their admin work by booking rooms for them in the building, printing things out for them, making and taking calls, answering the door and probably the most important, processing referrals. Referrals get sent to us when someone wants help with a young person and they feel that our services could help. We will put this young person onto the system for practitioners too look at and decide what would be the best service of support to provide for them. I also have personal tasks like weekly fire alarm and water safety checks. As well as archiving old files. Everyone here is really friendly and supportive, I am really glad to be a part of the team here.

I have been trained on multiple things since I started here and picked up new skills. I have been trained on how to use the main systems for referrals, which is called IAPTUS. I have been trained on how archiving works, filing things in destruction date order. I have learnt more advanced skills on Microsoft office packages/software. For example, how to access company shared inboxes, and how to access shared calendars on outlook. So I feel like my IT skills have further developed while I have been here.

I really enjoy my programme. I am getting more and more tasks and responsibilities. I am often busy, which I like. I also have apprenticeship assignments to keep up with too. So my working days are filled with things to do, never a boring day here. I feel like there has been a lot more to do and learn here in the 4 months I have been here than what I did and learned in my previous job which I was with for 14 months.

I feel like the program is well structured. I can easily log into BUD (The site used for my apprenticeship programme) and check what tasks I have left to do, with the deadlines right beside the task names. I can go in, see my criteria I have to hit and easily submit my work alongside a comment about what I have done in the attached piece of work. I know that any questions I have will be quickly answered by my tutor who supports me throughout and has regular fortnightly catch ups to check on my progress.

I feel like my employer gives me the best support, better than I could possibly have imagined before working here. (I din't have a good time at my old job I worked out before here. Support was non existent) I know that any queries I have, I can go to my employer for support and help. I am trained and supported when starting any new tasks. For example, most recently sorting out DBS checks letters for staff. My employer gave me guidance and feedback when first starting this task. And that is how every task has gone so far. Guidance, having a go at it, getting feedback, learning from that feedback and using that to improve in the future. Even with personal things like mental health, I get really good support and check ins to make sure that I am okay.

I receive really good support from my tutor too. We have check ins every two weeks to make sure that I am handling the assignments well and to check how I am doing in general. I most recently had my first review. I let my tutor know I wasn't feeling well lately (Stomach bug) and she understood, asked if I was okay to continue with the review multiple times and made sure I was okay. She always asks if I have any questions and I know she is a message or email away if I am ever stuck with something. Like yesterday with my personal development plan, I wanted to know if I could add something from outside of work to do with my mental health and she was fully supportive of that.

Well during the review, we spoke about future units and assignments which will co-exist with my role at work. I will have to provide evidence (Screenshots, examples etc) to prove I have hit the requested criteria. The assignments that I have done so far have mainly been researching things to do with my company. Like policies, how finances are effected by certain aspects like the environment, government, social aspects, etc. So the majority of assignments link into either my role here or information about the company I work for.

Actually, there is an upcoming team event. We have had an email sent out asking if there is anything that we would like to do specifically for one of the activities on that planned day. I chose not to say anything because it will be my first team event and I want to see how things go first before I figure out what I would change or do different for when the next event happens. We did first aid training in February which was more fun than first aid training usually is. We took it seriously but had a joke every now and then and kept things light hearted and entertaining. We also have plenty of team meetings for all of the clusters which we can drop into. Most are not mandatory but can help with seeing what is going on within the organisation.

Yes

Because I have never known a company like it. Every single staff member is nice, kind, supportive and caring. Everyone feels more like a friend rather than a colleague. When you start work here, workloads are drip fed to you bit by bit so that you are learning and growing each day. You are not thrown into the deep end straight away, it's gradual. Even personal support is on a whole other level. Each meeting no matter what meeting, team or one to one meetings, the very first thing is personal check ins. Seeing how everyone is doing personally and supporting anyone who is going through something. It is such a happy work environment and it has really changed what I want to do in the future, as I feel that my future is here.

Show that you caring and motivated. This company is a company that is perfect for people with a big heart. People who like to think with their heart. You need to be caring because this company thrives to provide a safe and happy childhood to every child that comes to us for help and support. You need to be motivated to achieve what Action for Children stands for. We are inclusive, we believe every child deserves to be safe and happy and deserves every bit of support that they need in life to grow into amazing adults with bright futures.