Commercial apprentice Review

I am a commercial apprentice, I work within the team helping out with tasks on the contract. This can include updating registers and going to meetings. I get to visit different sites and learn about different areas of the business and meet a lot of different people. I also join conference calls and take notes.

I have developed my communication skills and have learnt to work in different situations. My confidence has grown because I have had to learn to approach people for help and ask questions.The construction industry can be a bit scary, especially some of the meetings you have to go to but I have learnt to adapt to new situations and I enjoy the them. I get to work with different cultures so I have had to adapt my communication and body language to help people who might not understand. I often have to make decisions which I previously may have struggled to make but I have become more assertive and I can now make them with ease.

I enjoy the team I work in and the people around me. My bosses and team are extremely helpful and someone is always around when I need help. They keep me up to date with what is going on and arrange training sessions to teach me things I have not come across. The directors and higher bosses are also very approachable and if I have a problem they are happy to listen and help. I have met a lot of different people and been to networking events and I feel I have been properly embedded into the industry.

I feel like a valued member of my team, they keep me included in everything and they are willing to sit and explain when I don't understand. within the company as a whole everyone makes a lot of effort with the apprentices to make sure we are getting the best out of our experience. We are always being offered training in house and we have mentors, line managers and buddies.

My programme could be better structured, most of the teams don't know what is expected form them or the apprentice so I feel there could be better communications between HR and the teams. We don't receive a lot of support from HR,if we have problems or queries we get passed on to someone else or have to wait weeks for an answer. When I first joined I didn't have a job description and this was actually made by an existing apprentice so needs to be put into circulation. I was also asked to make a joining pack for the company which should already have existed and isn't something an apprentice should be making.We have been asking for our next rotations, which are fast approaching, so we can make arrangements for where we will be based. This has not been sorted and we have been asking for the last few months.

Our current tutor doesn't seem to care about the students. We have an assignment every week ranging from between 5000-10000 words which is completely unrealistic. We previously had a tutor who failed to teach us anything then left. When we went to the current tutor about this he basically laughed and told us to get on with it because it's 'not that hard'. I feel constantly let down by the college and the lack of support we receive. We are given too many assignments with no time to do them we have no work life balance because we're always doing college work. We have been on block release so we are away from the college for long periods of time. The tutor picks and chooses who's emails he replies to and is just extremely unhelpful.

My employer tries to do whatever it can to resolve issues especially with college. However, the people they delegate to who are supposed to resolve these problems don't always follow this up so we're back to square one. In house my team do whatever they can to help me with assignments but the assignments and rotations don't go together so it's a bit unstructured.

EDF help out with my travel costs to college and I have previously been given a pay rise so at the moment I am happy with this.

We are involved in a lot of young professional events and get sent to different locations for training. We also get to visit different sites and take part in discussions about the industry. They organise social events after work such as quiz's and dinners. This is good for me as I moved away for this job and I am trying to settle in and make friends.

Yes

Providing the issues we have get sorted, EDF is a very welcoming workplace and there are a lot of opportunities to branch out into different parts of the world. The opportunity of becoming a quantity surveyor can set you up for life, especially working on a project like this, and you can work anywhere in the world.

Be yourself, during the assessment centre they look at your behaviours. They like everyone to have the same values so they will integrate well into the teams. As long as you communicate well and are willing to learn then you're fine.