Relationship Team Officer, Corpoate and Commercial Coverage Review

My role is prodiminently to assist the relationship managers (coverage team) in all working activites with them and their customers. On a day-to-day basis I prepare meeting briefs, arrange customer meetings, help with customer contact and deal with all customers queries.

Yes - I have developed my customer service skills which I had previously had but in manner that was not required to be as professional. I have learnt many new skills such as; analysis profit and loss/ balance sheets, obtaining and analysing FI/MI (annual accounts and Management Information), I have learnt time management skills and how to use outlook to manage my time and meetings affectively.

I really enjoy the apprenticeship programme that I am on and look forward to coming to work. I also look forward to the day to day contact that I have with both customers and collegues. They are very different as I regularly sit with collegues to learn new skills and help to develop my skills and abilities and I also enjoy talking to customers as there are always new queries that I have not previously dealt with and this gives me a chance to learn something new and then get back to the customer to help them out, which is very rewarding as they are very appreciative and it is good to know that you have helped someone out and made their day easier.

I feel very valued by RBS. My manager is always happy for me to participate in activites which help my training and development such as organising careers fairs and going to London to meet the different teams there to help me to gain an understading of the different aspects of the bank. When I do a piece of work for a colleague I always recieve good feedback and they are very appreciative of this which makes me feel very valued. I have also recieve an `IThankYou` from a DCB who I helped to organise a career fair for, as well as a verybal thanks and appreciation, which made me feel as if I had made his day much better which therefore made me feel valued.

My structure is well organised but could have been better organised at the start. My education provider BPP did not know when our exam was going to be at the start and it would have been good to be given the exam date earlier so I could have known what to work towards. Also, I did not particularly have a day-to-day plan on what I needed to learn so between myself and a colleague we thought of everything that I needed to learn to fully develop in the role and created a checklist for me to work towards which now helps to structure my development. Everything else so far has been structured and organised well, I was able to meet my manager and the team before I started work which was great, I had a great induction which outlined many things such as office etiquette, attire and the different rules involved in working life such as how log before my shift I should let my manager know that I am ill etc. Also, There is an online learning environment which helps me to structure my learning and work towards various qualifications.

My training provider provides me with various types of support. The main point of contact is my skills coach/assessor who to start with had the wrong email for me which was not great and when we are on the phone it is alway bad quality but she is a regular point of contact that is always available to answer any queries, which is great. There is also an email support team, which I have used many times and there is a certain member of staff within that team that always picks up my emails instantly and is fantastic in responding to me and is extremely supportive. There is also a teacher that has an email address that I can use to contact, which I have done in relation to not understanding certain content with my studies and he resonded within good time and was very supportive.

My emplyer, RBS, is fully supportive of me, my careers development, my training and skills development. If I want to observe another area of the bank to increase my knowledge, I am able to do so. If I want to develop new skills, E.g. organisational skills with arranging events, my employer fully supports me with this. I have also been allocated a buddy which enables me to go to someone if I ever need any support with anything, whether it is a simple day-to-day query or training requirements.

My salary covers all of the costs and overheads I have and also allows me to save a good amount of money for the future and for holidays and other luxury items. I believe that my apprenticeship is one of the best paying apprenticeships at this level.

So far I have not encountered a large amount of opportunities outside of work other than the Entrepenerial development academy and the Careers fairs that I organise and participate in.

Yes

I would highly reccomend RBS to a friend as I believe that overall the apprenticeship framweork is brilliant. It offers excellent training and development which involves skills that could be used amongst a large variety of careers, it offers full time jobs and the end of the training in an industry that without the programme would be very hard to get into, as a brand they are very supportive of their staff and are customer-focused which I believe to be a main core structure of business. Also, the company allows its employees to progress their careers in different sectors of the bank, which for someone who is wanting to try out different career paths is beneficial to them.

Make sure that you are willing to develop skills, learn new skills and want to do this, if you ask for help you will get help - So, if you ever feel that your workload is too small, ask for more work; if you ever feel that you do not understand something, or would like to learn something new, ask a colleague for help and advice. I would also suggest networking yourself at every opportunity, create a linkedIn profile and stay in touch with people you meet at events, create business cards to hand out to colleagues and customers as you never know when they may need to or want to contact you and talk to all of your colleagues regularly and ask them to train you on certain things and share there knowledge, people always want to help you so ask!