Trainee Commercial manager Review

Day to day activities consist of any ad hoc request for senior members of the team. I also am responsible for invoicing and managing of our contract documents that we send to our client. aside from this I also manage two minor packages on my site. so it will involve going out on site and valuing the subcontractors application.

The main skills I have developed over the course of my apprenticeship so far are my confidence skills. this has been in relation to activities such as speak up during group work or sounding assertive and that I know what im talking about on the phone.

I really enjoy working at Mace. I love the opportunity to work with so many great members of the team and I love the site atmosphere. Working at my site is everything I imagined it would be and more. We have a great opportunity to rotate to other areas within the QS role, which will be great for my development; but makes me slightly disappointed as I know that I would like to be a commercial manager in the future and feel sad I wont see my first proper project to completion.

I feel like mace really value its apprentices well. I receive so much help from my line manager and my colleagues and nothing is ever too much. in addition to this, we have already had the opportunity to meet members of the board and senior members of staff who have shared their experiences with us and really showed that they care about our development.

my programme at mace is very structured. Uni is well arranged and our studying is monitored with sign in sheets. in addition to this fact, we have internal mace training days set up for the apprentices so we can go and learn about real construction techniques. this has been the most beneficial element for me as I haven't had any previous exposure to works on site and feel grateful as it makes me feel like I have an understanding and I no longer feel out of my depth.

our training provider is South bank university and I would say that although we have lectures we haven't really been told about any additional support that we can receive.

As apprentices at Mace we receive a huge amount of support from our employer. My line manager and colleagues within the commercial team regularly sit down with me and want to know about my progress. not only this, but they always have work for me, eager to give me more and more responsibility and coach me through it. this makes me certain that I made the right decision when choosing my apprenticeship instead of full time uni. you would no where near receive the same amount of experience and support at uni as you would over the course of an apprenticeship.

Salary at Mace is very fair and the funding of uni is also great. It means I can get my degree without any future debt to worry about. However, for me travel costs will take away a great deal of my wage. I travel from kent to London with my train fair costing me almost £500 a month.

Within our company we have a lot of social events and go out often as a site. mace also provide one volunteer day a year where we have a paid day to go and help our communities.

Yes

I would recommend mace as I feel they are one of the most supportive and friendly apprenticeship providers in the industry. Having already dropped out of an apprenticeship in the past with a large and well known company in the industry I can guarantee that Mace are a thousand times better. the education and opportunity to gain a degree is better, the exposure to site activities and interest taken by senior members of staff is far better. Mace is a supportive and great firm to work for who give me confidence in my abilities and opportunity to take on more responsibility.

I would say practice for you first telephone interview as this Is a key stage to ensure you get through to the group stage and they get to see the real you. I would make sure you research mace thoroughly as it shows a key interest and mention any projects that may have been of interest to you in your initial application.