Graduate Planner Review

My job role involves providing different services and planning advice to clients with support and guidance from the team. My main responsibilities have been drafting planning documents such as planning statements, representations, high-level email appraisals. On some jobs I have taken responsibility for monitoring and responding to consultee comments and have helped to submit a number of different types of planning application. I have project managed residential led schemes with oversight from colleagues.

I have developed my project management skills, writing skills in respect of planning statements, representations on behalf of clients, emails providing advice, and general research skills for example, searching for relevant planning appeals, identifying sites to monitor.

Overall I enjoy my programme and have the opportunity to work on a range of projects/tasks in work. My team is also extremely supportive generally and always provides time for questions to be asked. I also find my Masters course extremely interesting, engaging and useful. There are a wide variety of good networking events/CPD events provided my employer. However, sometimes the peaks in workload have not been well managed by my employer meaning I have struggled to balance work and study time. It also took a long period of time for there to be recognition of peaks in workload and its negative impact on University study. In addition, there is no incentive provided for graduates taking on more of a workload/working outside of normal working hours as this is standardised for the graduate programme. This has negatively affected my overall enjoyment of the programme as there have been times where I have to work during evenings/on my study with no recognition.

The training provider course is not well structured. You are required to complete twice as many credits in year 2 as you do in year 1 meaning workload is heavily weighted towards the second year. This combined with higher workload given to me by my employer as I have become more experienced has been very challenging at times. The internal training days run my employer are extremely useful and have helped me feel much more confident as I work towards my APC.

The internal training days, APC mentoring and regular catch ups with my manager provide me with good support. In particular, the internal training days are extremely beneficial and cover new topics/presentations relating to your APC. At times workload from my employer has meant that I do have to work on my study day however, my employer does try to ensure that this does not happen.

I receive good support overall with regular review meetings with a mentor from my training provider. Timetabling has been challenging in the second year of study with irregular study days. This has been difficult to manage with work projects.

Overall I think there is a good range of modules provided by my training provider which help me perform better in my role. There is one module in particular that was extremely useful and I think more teaching time on this would have been beneficial as it was an integral part of the course and I didn't feel enough time was spent on it.

Yes there are a wide range of professional networking events to get involved with. There are also quite a few sports events that you can get involved with.

Yes

Savills degree apprenticeship pathway is a well-structured programme that supports you towards chartership and beyond. There are a wide variety of projects in different sectors and of different sizes that you have the opportunity to work on and the internal training days in particular help you prepare for your APC and also provide CPD tailored to your pathway. The extensive knowledge of employees also provides you with a great learning environment.

Make sure you have a good understanding of the job role you are applying for and the tasks you will be required to do at work. Research Savills values and the wide range of service lines that are offered. Also research the projects that the team you are applying has worked on.