IT Support Apprentice Review

Supporting the employees of the company in regards to IT infrastructure. I claim Tickets and work to get the issues resolved. This could be issues with Microsoft applications and in-house software. Activating staff passes and email releases are done using a different apps so I am exposed to a variety of software. I must also attend to hardware in the office and any issues with monitors, desks etc. Solving issues in meeting rooms is something I do regularly as there's a lot of meetings in the London office.

I started with no experience and so do feel like I have learnt some of the basic core IT skills. The majority of this is understanding the way the IT team works, the way things are escalated and the procedures they follow. Common issues with Microsoft applications have allowed me to develop a basic understanding of errors, and why they occur. Also, whilst being an apprentice, I feel as if my analytic skills have increased as it often requires me to problem solve tickets and gain a deeper understanding of the issue I'm trying to solve. I also developed on my skills of customer service as I had previously worked in retail and so dealing with customers in an IT environment was new to me, however there was a lot of crossover skills.

I do enjoy my programme quite a bit, although sometimes it does feel daunting as I had no previous exposure to IT. It does sometimes feel like what is common sense to others in support is new to me and so causes a bit of unsureness in myself. Being in support is a foot in the door for me and so I always looked at it like a stepping stone. I would like to go into cloud engineering, however building on the fundamental skills and understanding the basics of IT as a whole seemed like a good way to get started.

On the Baltic Apprenticeships' side, I do feel like it is well organised. We get our assignments and course dates in advance, so we can plan our activities around this. The courses are also enjoyable and interactive which I enjoy. As for Barnett Waddingham, I feel like they are also organised and structed well. We had a training schedule for our first 8 weeks in which we aimed to learn the most common issues and in how to navigate the most common software used. Some of the training topics were delayed by a bit, but in the end were taught.

Barnett Waddingham is a very supportive company. The IT team itself are always open to helping each other and quite a lot of tasks require collaborating or help in general from one another, and most of the team are happy to provide this. They are a close-knit team in general and have vast experience with different apprentices and so understand that everyone learns differently and some take longer than others

Baltic provide great support when working towards the qualification. We have call updates, frequent email contact and a team of people who genuinely aim to help. The courses themselves are helpful too as they provide an insight on what we're currently doing in the office as well as helps us learn skills of things that we may need in the future. The team is great at explaining things are patient with every apprentice, as not everyone learns at the same pace and some people may feel discouraged by this, but Baltic are very approachable and are happy to help

The courses themselves are helpful too as they provide an insight on what we're currently doing in the office as well as helps us learn skills of things that we may need in the future. What we learn in the courses are relevant to what we do everyday in the office. Also, it allows us to prepare for things we may do in the future e.g. exposed us to virtual machines before we got an insight of them at work.

There are IT Away days and quarterly office meetups. This helps build team chemistry and the experiences are enjoyable. The last IT Away day was a good time at a camp site and the activities were a good way to introduce myself to the rest of the team.

Yes

A good company with a good team of helpful individuals. I can only speak for IT of course but my experience has been enjoyable and I believe a lot of people would enjoy working here.

There's a variety of people with vast experience, so if you feel like you lack experience in a certain area, there'll be a lot of people that can help.