Laboratory Apprentice Review

I work in the department Genetic Toxicology and Photosafety, this evolves carrying out experiments such as the mouse lymphoma assay and the Ames assay. It is my responsibility that all the workbooks for these experiments are filled in, I do the preparation for the experiments then carry out the experiments alongside the team. If there are new batches of agar or buffer for the experiments I will carry out a batch test on them. All of these tasks can only been done to a good standard when communicating well with the rest of the team and staying on board if there are any changes to the experiment, I have to stay in contacts with the department TLS as they label our agar plates for the Ames assay.

During college I developed good laboratory techniques but working well as a team here at GSK helped me to develop them further as I have been taught aseptic techniques. Having the responsibility of preparing parts of the experiments the day before they occur has also developed my planning and problem solving skills as I have to plan it around other tasks I have during the day. On some occasions we have had to change the day of an experiment to suit the needs of the chemists that send the compounds which gives me further experience and skills in problem solving. I have to be organised with everything I do to maintain a balance between working at GSK and completing university assignments with the apprenticeship to make sure I don't fall behind with either my University or work tasks. GSK provides many training programs online which has been extremely helpful especially at the start of the apprenticeship as they have taught me their work values and expectations, as well as a wide range of laboratory safety techniques and the importance of following risk assessments.

I thoroughly enjoy many aspects of the programme. There is yet to be a day where I wake up and am not exited to go to work and learn as much as I can from my friends and colleagues with other members of the apprenticeship and others that work with GSK. There is a very friendly environment within my team, everyone enjoys each other's company and whenever I am confused or curious about anything they eagerly answer any of my questions. I believe I meet all my expectations to a good standard, my manager is aware of all I do, I keep good communication with the team and those outside the team who are involved in any tasks I have to complete. I have managed to stay organised to complete each task on time.

I have monthly catch up meetings with my manager so he knows exactly where I am in the programme, me and a fellow apprentice are the first members of the programme Genetic Toxicology and Photosafety have ever had, so it is importance to stay transparent with our feelings on how we are doing. My manager has told me on many occasions that he is happy with my behaviour to work and my ability to finish each task and problem I am faced with, knowing that he thinks I am doing well and knowing that he'll give an honest opinion on the matter makes me feel valued here at GSK. The team appreciate I might not be as experienced as some of the industrial placement students they have had as I have come straight from college, for them to give me a range of responsibilities and tasks shows that they trust that I can do everything to their standard and makes me feel valued. When members of Kent University come to the workplace to see how everybody is getting on it makes me happy that we get external recognition from them that I am also doing well by their standards too.

Towards the start of the apprenticeship I feel like it was hard for my manager to know how to structure the programme with me being one of the first apprentices, as he had very little understanding on how much I was already trained in from school. There were many meetings to introduce the purpose of the team and what they do, as I mentioned before, the online training programmes helped with this largely too. It was useful to me that the university side of the apprenticeship did not start from day 1, we had a couple of months to settle in with the workplace and get trained up in the experiments and I think this worked very well. I think all the new information would be quite overwhelming if I had to do assignments straight away too. Once the university assignments did start rolling in my manger was advised from the university that I have at least 8 hours a week to study at the minimum, and so I work from home 1 day a week to complete all the university work which works efficiently for me. If there is particularly stressful assignments the team provide support by advising the best people to ask question to as many people in the company are well trained in many aspects of modules I learn about with the university. And if there is any exams coming up they provide support in allowing us time during the work day to revise. Every Wednesday a section of the team get together in a meeting to discus what tasks need to be done the following week and from there a task is delegated and each month there is a full team meeting to make sure everyone is working well to achieve their tasks and we can present our findings to each other, this also helps as we can work collectively to conclude any unexpected findings. All though it was hard for the team to judge how well organised the programme had to be for me, but I feel like everybody has done a good job of organising it with how efficiently I got trained and understood the roles and expectations f the team.

I am currently doing my 5th module of the university work and have noticed quite a variety on how supportive the online tutors are based on their responses to any questions I have on the course. Although I'm on my 5th module this has only had two teachers, 1 biology and 1 chemistry teacher. Both are easy to contact through the moodle messaging service or through their emails. The teacher I had for biology seemed more blunt and straight to the point with feedback, in some cases this was sufficient but I didn't think of it as supportive. Her feedback on each assignment was quite small and was quite difficult to see what I needed to improve on from it. However with the chemistry teacher, he seemed genuinely happy to answer any questions and everything he said was detailed and easy to understand rather than being vague. He provided a large amount of detail on what went wrong and what went right in each assignment and this was very helpful as it allowed me to improve the way I wrote those kind of reports. It surprised me that because of this I have enjoyed the chemistry module more than the biology modules when chemistry is usually my weaker point with science.

It surprised me how supportive the company has been when I first started. The was a section of a cell biology assignment I struggled to find images for through the internet and so a member of the team suggested to go to the histology department to see if they already had an image of the cell line I was focused on. However they did not but, they was more than happy to show me how to prepare the cell line for the electron microscope and allowed me to take my own photographs which I could go on to label and use in the assignment. I thought that tis was the best support I've had so far, I didn't think I would see an electron microscope in person and they let me actually use one on the cells I work with in my experiments. I feel like everyone I have asked any sort of help with in the company have all had a happy supportive attitude. My mentor has been very supportive overseeing all my training.

I still live with my parents and so I have very little living costs, it can be a bit pricy travelling in via train but the salary is more than enough to cover that. The salary allows me to have a good social life during the weekends where I can catch up with friends I have made in college who are currently in university, this allows us to reflect on the differences (pros and cons) to go to university or apprenticeship. The location is very good to me and since starting the apprenticeship I have been able to open a savings account which is easy to save up money for when I do decide to leave home in my own time.

There are opportunities for volunteering when GSK has their 'orange day' events. More specific to apprentices only there is an opportunity to meet the rest of the apprentices (from different years not only the year I am in) at a range of different social events. I have recently learnt that there are many opportunities to go to events for free in most London museums using my GSK card which I plan to do soon as something to do in my own time when I am not working.

Yes

I would especially recommend an apprenticeship with GSK over going to a university. This is because it still gains you a degree, it would give you 3 years experience in a laboratory, where you would be in a laboratory a lot less in university doing less hand on work. You would be contributing to actual data that makes a difference with GSK, rather than just numbers for an assignment in university. It provides numerous opportunities to network which will be greatly beneficial at the end of the degree. At GSK it is very easy to change your mine, if you feel like the department you are placed in is not for you as long as your are transparent with your feelings it is simple to go to another department. You learn values and skills very beneficial for day to day life like problem solving, organising tasks by priority and deadlines as well as having very good communication skills to everyone across the company.

Advice for the application process: Research GSK before hand, understand their values and expectations, before you go any further make sure they meet your own values, you don't want to do anything you don't agree with. Advise for the interview: Bring anything you think will be useful, if you want to talk about an article you read and thought was interesting, bring it and reference it, bring any notes and bits of paper you will think allow you to show off how you think you are interesting and can be of value to the company. Advise for assessment days: You can never be too prepared for anything. Keep practicing what you want to say, what you want to do. Practice as much as you can, ask friends and family if they have any advice on how to improve before the actual day. Advise for onboarding process: As you start to adjust to the company the best thing to d is ask as many questions as possible and never be shy about asking anything, nothing is a 'dumb question' and everyone is happy to help whenever it is needed. Advise for experience and opportunities: Take as much opportunities as you can, each one you take will gain experience in all sorts of fields, I won't be just beneficial to you at work but how you look at your day to day life. Whenever you gain any new experiences it is a good idea to keep some sort of journal of what you done, your thought process as you done it and how you can apply that experience to other situations, this can always come in helpful later on in life. What would I like to have been told? When I first started this apprenticeship I was quite shy talking to new people, advice I would give to anyone like me would be to just jump straight in, forget any worries, you've made it here so far, be confident in your opinions, I wouldn't have made it here if my values didn't comply with he companies values so well so I should have spoke my mind more and get to know everyone I meet.