Social Mission Aprentice Review

My overall job role is working within the Social mission team. In the social mission team I have to look at social issues which are currently happening in the world and see what people are saying about them/how people feel about what is happening. After finding an important cause, I then have to se up a project plan on how we could go around campaigning with this issue and raising awareness. in my job I connect with campaigning groups externally to see if they will get involved and campaign with us. I also write up reports at the end of a campaign to see what we have done well and what we can improve on with the next campaign.

I have learnt how to campaign about important issues and how to write up a report from a social mission point of view. I have also taken part in extended EXCEL courses and I have taken part in a redmine course which teaches you how to edit on the Ben and Jerry's webpage and how to upload any new blogs. I have also learnt how to write social mission blogs with a Ben and Jerry's tone.

I really enjoy the work side of my programme. The people I work with are great and the company's values is a large bonus. I appreciate how much both Ben and Jerry's and UniLever care about their impact on the world's growth and how they want to help as much as possible.

My line manager is great. We always have a meeting on a Monday morning to have a catch up and see where we both are. I feel that if I need to talk to my manager about an issue I am able to. my whole team gets me involved with as many projects as possible and they do allow me to get involved with anything I want, even if this is outside of my job role. I am not too involved with Unilever directly as we have our own office instead of working within a Unilever office, but whenever I have contacted unilever they are always helpful.

Unilever is really great with helping with the apprenticeship side of things. However, the training provider is not as helpful. Sometimes we have to email them many of times before we get a reply and sometimes our questions get ignored. some people are still quite confused of what is going on and it feels as if we don't get an answer to our worries.

Our training provider isn't unilever it is an outside provider. the outside provider isn't the best at supporting. As I said above, many times our emails get ignored and even when we are in webinars our questions can be ignored. some people are still quite confused about the programme and it seems that they get ignored (I am not one of these people but I have seen it happen)

I receive a lot of support from my employer. My whole team is really helpful and they all want me to do as well as I can. Whenever I need to talk about something everyone is super easy to talk to and help where they can. I do my coursework one day a week and people always ask me how its going and they always seem interested in knowing what I'm learning and wanting to know if I'm doing well/if I need any help.

Luckily for me I live 10 minutes away from the office so it doesn't cost me much to get here/living costs at all. However the pay is really good for what we do and socially it really helps. IT also feels nice being able to put savings away each month and still having enough money to do what you want.

There are loads of opportunities' here. I have been involved in campaigning with my team and we have also been looking at volunteering opportunities within the area. Due to me being local to this area its really great as I have been able to inform everyone about opportunities they may not know about and due to people knowing me in the community I have also been able to spread awareness about what Ben and Jerry's actually do and how they can help people/the community/

Yes

I would recommend UniLever to a friend who wants to not only have a great job, but someone who is also interested in doing good. I think to work within UniLever you generally have to be a kind person and you generally have to have the passion in wanting to help others as much as possible. UniLever is also great socially and I have met many great people, there are also so many fun activities you can get involved with if you need a distress from work.

The main tip is to just be yourself. There's no point putting on an act because people will know, there's nothing better than being able to say you got the job because you was completely yourself and they liked you. Even if you're shy, try to talk to as many people as possible. Although it is a serious process make it as fun as you can too. Having people that you get along with and who can make you laugh really helps with nerves and it makes you feel at ease- the people want to see that you can get along with everyone and make as many friends. Also get involved with as much as you can, you only have a short time here so get stuck in and make a point to be noticed, network as much as possible. Most importantly.. SMILE, be yourself and have a great time :)