Apprentice Review

My day to day activities comprise of supporting Client Advisors and Client Advisor Assistants. Having to answer and deal with client queries is part of my day to day task, I get the responsibility of helping support the client relationship with little client interaction, having to carry due diligence checks and updating client information as well as preparing client pitches and presentations and organizing meetings. On day to day basis I interact with employees and colleagues from various other teams and countries, working with the power of collaboration. My work follows the principles of Challenge, Integrity and collaboration.

Throughout my time at UBS I have learnt a lot about how banking works, from front office to back office, covering client contact to operations. Throughout my apprenticeship I have completed a qualification IOC and was recently enrolled to progress onto IAD. I believe that the opportunities for qualifications and learning can be improved. Nevertheless I have learned lots from my experienced colleagues and have really improved professionally in terms of being a team worker, working in challenging conditions, working on tight deadlines and many more. I believe that this apprenticeship has really developed me professionally and is helping me progress.

I love the culture, and the people I work with. Nevertheless I believe that apprentices are slightly underappreciated within the firm despite the large impact they are having on business. I definitely found that my ambition of learning and progressing was always far ahead of the apprenticeship reality I faced and I believe that the programme could be improved to be a much better overall experience in terms of learning and progressing. I do love and enjoy the time I spend here, because I get to work with exciting people full of vast experience and rich knowledge of the banking world. It is a very diverse community which bonds us together and nurtures us to become the better versions of ourselves. Nonetheless I have had bigger expectations of me being supported to reach my ambitions and aspirations. But I still stand by the words of "you can never dream too big".

I believe that apprentices are slightly underappreciated within the firm despite the large impact they are having on business.

In all honesty, for programme that existed for 2 and half years it is structured okay. But I believe there's big room for improvement, for example the wait in between finishing my first exams and being rolled into next ones was unnecessary long.

Apart from 2 day study course for each exam, you have to self study, or in other words learn by yourself. I don't think my training provider has supported me like college or university in any way. But on other hand the exams are pretty easy.

I think I get lots of support in terms of mentorship and generally the support from my employer is good.

Okay, in simple terms, what comes in - goes out. Unlike other apprenticeships which raise the pay and have appraisal after exams, this is not the one. You are fixed for two years but get punished by inflation and rising costs. Nonetheless, Its just about enough to get by.

You get 2 days to volunteer a year, there are some opportunities to do sports like triathlons. We have an onsite gym which is amazing.

Yes

UBS has good people who you can learn lots from

My tips would be: - maintain your integrity - work hard - be resilient - strive for success - always be hungry - never have sense of entitlement, always be thankful for the opportunity - learn from everything whether its a mistake or whether it's a challenge - Be patient - it will get better (eventually)