HR Apprentice Review

I am a HR Apprentice, previously my role was very admin heavy, however overtime I have gained a lot more responsibility and have lead on particular projects e.g. interns hiring, developing a communication strategy for diversity events such as mental health awareness week. My daily responsibilities are; assisting with recruitment, providing support on employee relations i.e. note taking for disciplinary's, grievances, creating investigation evidence folders, booking and arranging internal and external training, maintain L&D systems, manage the e-learning site including the creation and distribution of new training, invoicing, manage the Fund Manager Job shadowing programme etc.

Now that I have a lot more responsibility in my role, I feel I've gained a very broad range of new skills such as, thinking about the bigger picture when I need to carry out a task/project or make a change to a process. My organisation and time management skills have also enhanced throughout my apprenticeship. Additionally, my ability to manage other people's expectation when they require assistance from me has definitely developed, as when I first joined I used to say yes to everything because I thought I had to, however now I set expectations around whether I have capacity to do something.

I enjoy the work I do now in my apprenticeship, particularly the diversity and inclusion aspects of my role. However, I work in M&G Real Estate and am the only apprentice in my building, so am not based in the same location as all of the other apprentices in M&G Investments. It would have been nice to be closer to the other apprentices, as I haven't had as much opportunity to get to know all of them and mingle with people in my age group. Also, my study was quite siloed, as there were no other M&G apprentices doing the same programme as me and my training was all online with no other London apprentices in my cohort, which meant I've been studying alone throughout my apprenticeship.

Personally I think this could've been improved in my team, however there are definitely some people who have made me feel valued at M&G through the feedback they've given me and also the opportunities for getting involved in particular projects.

I receive half a day off every week for study leave, my induction was organised and I was given a time table of things I'd cover in my first few weeks and with who. For around the first half of my programme, I found the training aspect to be quite unorganised, as I had a lot of issues with my training provider e.g. links not being sent for us access the online lessons and constant change of tutors which caused confusion in terms of assignment requirements. However, after numerous meetings and sharing feedback this did definitely approve, but I think if I were to do my apprenticeship again I would've preferred to have done it via classroom study and workshops rather than online.

We receive one online assignment guidance session for every unit and from there can email the tutor or arrange a call for any queries. I have a review meeting call around every 6 weeks with my tutor and there are also two online lessons for every unit. At first I didn't find the support that great, which I think was partially due to there being a lot of changes to people's roles and people leaving and joining at BPP, which became confusing in terms of who to contact and the advice I was being given from different people. However, a new programme leader joined and stated the roles of each tutor clearly, which helped towards to the end.

I have regular catch ups with my manager and the Apprentice Manager at M&G Investments.

M&G pay a competitive salary for apprentices. I live in London, so only pay for a monthly bus pass and still live with my parents, so the salary is definitely adequate for me.

Employees are able to use 2 days for volunteering every year and my team have a team building day once a year. Apart from this there aren't many events at M&G Real Estate, however I think there are more opportunities at M&G Investments. We do also have an apprentice team building day and Xmas party every year, which is good. However, I think there could be more social opportunities for apprentices as M&G do not take apprentices in cohorts, so new joiners come in at different points of the year, which can result in many apprentices not knowing each other. Particularly for me because I am in a different building, I can't just go to say hello to a new apprentice at their desk because I'm not based in the same building.

Yes

I think M&G offer a good apprenticeship scheme and are generous in terms of salary and giving you the chance to balance your study i.e. having half a day off every week to use for study.

Be yourself, ensure it's something you actually have an interest in doing and ask questions in your interview. M&G aren't expecting you to have 10 years experience to do an apprenticeship scheme, so really you just need to show your willingness to learn and interest in the role.