Procurement & Commercial Apprentice Review

Four six month placements in various teams across the Procurement & Commercial function. Ranging from running my own end to end procurements in the procurement teams to contributing to policy and process changes as part of the Responsible Procurement team. Daily tasks have included stakeholder management (including senior stakeholders), explaining the procurement processes to other business areas and creation of procurement governance papers among many other things.

Enhanced my communication skills, developed my procurement knowledge from the ground up, gained confidence presenting in front of rooms of people, learned how to approach senior colleagues without feeling intimidated.

Very much enjoyed my programme. I was always involved in real meaningful work that was contributing to the team's goals as well as TfL's overall objectives. I never felt as though I was being given menial admin work to do because I was the apprentice in the team. Every member of the team was always focused on my development and how they can tailor the work they give me to be most beneficial to me.

Very well structured, but there is also complete freedom to choose where you go for your placements (other than your first one). This allows you to move to areas of the organisation that interest you, or areas that you think would be beneficial for your development. I think this is important because every apprentice is different, will have different strengths and areas for development, therefore allowing us to 'choose our own destiny' is incredibly useful.

More than I could ask for. Both from my sponsor/line manager and my placement managers, but also from people that have no managerial obligation to be supportive. The culture at TfL is very open and honest, which in turn is conducive to giving the best support to colleagues in general but particularly apprentices.

Plenty of support from CIPS - both in terms of exams and just generally. The teachers and 1-2-1 tutors that I have worked with have all been fantastic at what they do and offered support throughout my time with them and beyond.

The exams and book learning for CIPS give you a good foundation to work from. Realistically though, theory only gets you so far in a job role such as Procurement. On the job learning and development is more important in my opinion, but having the knowledge behind you to feed into the day to day will be very valuable moving forward.

None

Yes

The culture, the people, the pay, the opportunities and the feeling of being a part of one of the largest and most efficient integrated transport networks on the planet

A large part of what we do involves working with people - when interviewing try to speak to how you work with others and bring examples of that into any answers you give to interview questions even if the question is not specifically about that. Also, keep in mind that we do not expect you to be an expert in Procurement if you are applying for a procurement apprenticeship! A willingness to learn and an inquisitive nature are more important - the whole point of the apprenticeship is to train you up to be an expert in the field you are applying for!