Business Apprentice Review

My job title is a business apprentice. At the beginning of my apprenticeship, I will be doing 6 different placements around various departments within the business including: project office, project management, procurement, commercial, manufacturing and supply chain and finance. Each task day-to-day varies within the placement. Currently, in commercial I look at contracts, and various other elements to a contract, as well as the whole initial set up.

I will be completing my level 3 business and administration NVQ qualification as I work through my apprenticeship. This gives me development into my individual working and management skills. There has also been various courses that I have attended, such as manual handling training and counterfeit awareness training that has enabled me to gain various knowledge for those specific areas. Furthermore to this, by conducting numerous presentations, my presentation skills have improved dramatically and now I am a much more confident speaker in front of audiences.

For the apprenticeship programme as a whole, I extremely enjoy it. in terms of the work, I find some bits challenging, which helps me to improve my skills, but mainly the work can be rewarded and most definitely, interesting. The various different departmental teams that I have worked in has been fantastic, with a great work ethic and a brilliant working environment created. In terms of meeting my expectations, it has by far exceeded my expectations and has made me enjoy my working life.

Both Leonardo as a company, as well as Leonardo employees have made me feel extremely valued as a member of the team. Each manager that I have worked for in all of my placements have been helpful and pushed me into succeeding my work by giving me the recognition, support and exposure, which is really good. I have also been handed two employee recognition rewards in my short time I have been within the company, which highlights the internal recognition that Leonardo provides its employees for their hard work.

The business apprenticeship programme overall has been structured well. The company induction when starting my time at Leonardo was detailed and gave us an overview of the business itself. Various different members of departments spoke to us from the get go which meant that we gauged a better understanding of the departments straight away. The support that the programme provides is really good. Constant feedback and help whenever needed, there is always someone willing and able to help you with whatever you are doing at any point in time. In terms of the placements itself, the placement managers give you exposure to the work by setting you tasks and getting you to firm grips with what the work entails.

Our training provider works on numerous sites, but is always contactable. This is really good as it emphasises the point of someone always being there to help out. Our training provider always makes sure we're accessible to as much support as we need, and is always getting feedback on our progress in order to help us develop as individuals. Although I have not yet experienced this, if I were to find myself in any difficulties, I am aware that my training provider will be there to support me.

There is support in abundance within Leonardo. Like I have stated previously, I have found that everyone within Leonardo is willing to help out. Managers are always tracking your progress and making sure that you are getting the most from your placements, and this comes with the trust in providing the apprentices work, as I have found that more often than not, they have provided me work to make me feel like a valued member of the team, which is brilliant.

At Leonardo, the salary I have found is very good for my age. I am easily able to cover all of my costs as well as have the money to treat myself to anything that takes my fancy. To get to work is usually about a 20 minute drive on a good day, so my fuel does depreciate at a steady rate, but that is still not a problem. Therefore I find that the location of the business is brilliant for me, as it saves the hassle of commuting on a busy train into London 5 days a week.

I have found that within my short period of time with Leonardo, there are numerous events that have been held. There was a bowling competition held, a quiz night held, as well as many different types of events being made in the pipeline. So as a company, Leonardo really focuses on getting the whole team together, which is really good. Leonardo also provides employees access and cheaper access to various things such as healthcare, as well as leisure clubs, which is really nice on their behalf.

Yes

Leonardo is a really good company to work for. This is because it values their apprentices and make sure you get the most out of your working life. Especially for apprentices, they make sure you get the experience and knowledge, as well as the exposure to help develop your career and make a huge success of it. This shows how much Leonardo values their future employees, especially their apprentices.

It would be advisable to have a bit of background research into the company as a whole so that you have an understanding of the type of business we are and what we deal with. In terms of the assessment day, it is always good to be yourself and make sure you show of what you can do in order to show the assessors your capabilities.