Relationship Team Officer Review

My role is working as a member of the support team in NatWest commercial banking, in Exeter. Day to day, I answer the phones, prepare for customer meetings, respond to emails, and undertake general office duties. As part of my role developing I have been aligned to to managers, covering approximately 80 customers for which I am the man point of contact.

I have been on an extremely steep learning curve through this programme, and most of my learning has been from the job as opposed to the study work. I have developed existing customer service skills, and developed my telephone manner. I have learnt technical knowledge from scratch, along with lots of new computer systems.

Initially, I did not like my programme at all. I didn't feel I was progressing or being given anything 'new' or 'interesting' to do, and felt unimportant. As it is now, I can see that I was being sheltered for a reason, as I had a zero knowledge base at the time. Around 4-6 months in everything sort of clicked into place and I found I could answer queries competently and confidently, and I was given more responsibility and a progressed and developed. At the end of my programme, and right through to now, I like my job. The apprentice learning was fairly monotonous, but I have a huge sense of achievement now I am done.

Initially, as previously said, I did not feel valued by my colleagues and managers, however as I have developed and learned, I feel valued as part of the team I work with day to day, and also the wider team in the bank.

The programme itself was not very well organised, coupled with the lack of communication between the apprenticeship provider and my employer, there was often a bit of confusion about what I had to and within which timescales. The programme's structure became more apparent the further along I got with it, so it did improve.

There was lots of available support from my provider, however the quality of this content was not always high. I had an assessor who I could ask plenty of questions to, but she had no experience in finance so found it hard at times to answer my questions. I had weekly 3 hour long webinar lessons, which did not help me whatsoever to pass my exam - I was lead to believed it would be easier than it was in reality. I think feedback from this has made the content improve, from what i have seen. The help given with the course work was good - but I feel the books themselves were straightforward.

My employer supported me as much as they could, and I was always allowed the time to study if I needed it. I was allocated one day a week to study, and if I did not need it or use it, I could study for an hour or so a day during my working hours.

I am extremely fortunate with my salary, and to be given the opportunity to learn so much and be in such a good position, whilst earning enough to live comfortably, is rare in apprenticeships. I support myself at home, and my salary supports this well.

Outside of my job, I have a solid set of transferable skills behind me now, and I feel equipped for any job I may like to do. There are opportunities to develop outside of work too, for example charity work or working alongside a customer for a day. I have recently secured a role in the future Williams and Glyn team of RBS, which will be a promotion for me. I couldn't have got this job without my apprenticeship.

Yes

Because of all of the above reasons combined - it is hard to get a 'good' job without a degree sometimes, and often apprentices can work hard and feel taken advantage of with their low pay. I am paid well, trusted, and have been on a steep learning curve to get where I am. I have managed to progress on from my apprentice role, and feel others can do too.

I would advice anyone taking on this apprenticeship to stay with it. Initially I didn't enjoy my apprenticeship however it was so worth staying with it because not only did it get better to the point where I enjoyed it, but I have developed enough transferable skills to make me employable elsewhere too.