Assistant Relationship Manager Review

My role is as an Apprentice within a CPB team. I am being trained in role to become an Assistant Relationship Manager. I am on the frontline of the bank and help to manage relationships with Commercial customers by assisting them with general queries and carrying out internal tasks to ensure smooth-running of their bank accounts. I am also responsible for ensuring that the managers, who are generally out of the office on Customer meetings, meet their targets when it comes to Customer communication. As an Assistant, you also get involved in Customer meetings, lending reviews and various applications.

I am currently studying for my Professional Banker Certificate as a knowledge qualification alongside a Level 3 NVQ in Providing Financial Services. Outside my Apprenticeship I am offered lots of internal training and coaching and the opportunity to enhance existing skills. For example, I have the opportunity to enrol for a First Aid course and become a floor First Aider for my office. I am also encouraged to sign up for various workshops and webinars that are relevant to my role. In order to keep up to date with regulatory changes, every quarter I have to complete mandatory e-learning.

In terms of my Apprenticeship and work I carry out on a daily basis I do enjoy it, but feel that sometimes it can be repetitive because the other Assistants pick up the more important things. I did not really enjoy the webinar set up as they were too long, but they were beneficial when I was focused. My team were welcoming and are always happy to help if I have any questions, I also do not feel like I am too young to be in the team and everyone varies in age and there is no discrimination from this. My teams senior managers are very focused on career progression and I am glad that they will not stop me from progressing into a full role whether that be within the same team or elsewhere. I do not like how long it takes my Assessor to return my work as I do not want to start on something new until I have the last one back which is somewhat a waste of time that I could be spending on my Apprenticeship work.

My manager and also the director of my team are very eager to see me succeed in my Apprenticeship and allow me as much time as I require to study and complete my workbooks. They also encourage me to do learning outside of my Apprenticeship and allow me time off to shadow people and take part in work social events etc. I feel like now I have been in the role for over 6 months my colleagues feel like I am now beneficial for the team, whereas when I first joined the team I was very useless in terms of supporting the managers. I feel valued within the team as I am now made responsible for bigger tasks and encouraged to take on more things. I have also received an award for my help in supporting Customers when one of the Managers was admitted into hospital.

When I first joined RBS I received a well structured study guide for my PBC study and also a full list of webinar dates/times and also a list of deadlines for my workbooks. This was good as I could put everything into my diary early in and keep an eye on tasks I would have coming up. My skills assessor did not contact me until a few months into my apprenticeship and I did not feel like she was fully aware of my role, just of the course. Within my team, as two of the assistants are previous apprentices the team are well organised in helping to support me in my Apprenticeship and from day 1 there was a clear structure of how I would learn the role. I also regularly have catch up 1:1s with my manager to ensure I am coping well and check on what things I have coming up.

A 3 hour webinar was hosted fortnightly which walked through the chapters of the book. I generally found these webinars too long as I would eventually get distracted. However, the tutor put in a lot of time and effort for these webinars and because the webinars were live and interactive you had the opportunity to ask questions and check your progress with the qualification leading up to the exam. A review call is held with me, my skills assessor and my manager once a month. I feel like these calls are repetitive and she asks me questions from my study log regarding what I have been doing with my study time which I have already written down. She is yet to return my workbooks to sign them off, but from the comments on my draft I think it is good that they give you feedback leading up to final submittal. We have a designated RBS Apprentice Mailbox we can email with any queries or system support who generally reply quite quick.

My team has 2 previous Apprentices in it who progressed into role and they are very helpful in terms of my in-role training and also with the knowledge and competence components of my Apprenticeship. It is beneficial to have people around me who have gone through the same process and willing to take time out to help, not only with Apprenticeship questions but with my tasks in general. My manager and also the director of my team are very eager to see me succeed in my Apprenticeship and allow me as much time as I require to study and complete my workbooks. They also encourage me to do learning outside of my Apprenticeship and allow me time off to shadow people and take part in work social events etc. The general attitude from my team is quite positive and they all understand the reason for me being here and are all happy to help.

The RBS apprenticeship wage is way above average with the option to turn 25% benefit allowance into a cash injection on top of your salary - you can use the 25% benefit allowance to put into a pension scheme, purchase additional holiday, or purchase benefits such as health insurance, life insurance, childcare vouchers and shopping vouchers. My travel into London is quite expensive with an office situated in Bishopsgate, but I am able to use an Apprentice Oyster Card which discounts my fare. Which is beneficial if I am to travel into London on the weekends or throughout the day. Eating and drinking around a central London office is also very expensive with a general lunch meal being around £6/£8, which can build up as a daily cost over the course of the month. However, if you are able to secure a role following the Apprenticeship your wage does go up - but so will travel as you will not be able to take advantage of the Apprentice travel rate anymore.

RBS allow paid time off work to take part in community days and volunteering - and you receive regular email communication with details of these. For example, our CSR team send out emails about charity runs and homeless volunteering days you can register to take part in. Within my team, we regularly have sector events and Client events that the Managers are invited to, and they usually extend this invite to the Assistants. However, I feel that because I am an Apprentice they do not think I would benefit from attending and therefore the invite to these events is never extended to me. We are offered discounts for local gyms and leisure clubs.

Yes

My manager and also the director of my team are very eager to see me succeed in my Apprenticeship and allow me as much time as I require to study and complete my workbooks. They also encourage me to do learning outside of my Apprenticeship and allow me time off to shadow people and take part in work social events etc.

The main thing I took from the application process and interview is that the hiring managers are not expecting you to know everything, and RBS prefer to take on people from different backgrounds who have the capacity to learn and enhance their skills rather than take someone who is a perfect academic and candidate. You need to be able to demonstrate in your interview where you have evidenced our core values, and give examples of this but they do not always have to be linked in to work. It was not clear up until when I joined what my role would actually entail and I think that may have helped me to prepare for my start date rather than come in and not know what to expect.