Project Management Higher Apprentice Review

Through the week we spend three and a half days in work on our placements and then one day at college. We change our placements every four months so we get a good overview of the whole business and get to see all different departments over site. Day to day, I will go to different meetings and meet lots of people including senior managers. Also we get set tasks to do by our placement managers, who are around if we have any questions, yet we are trusted to do the work ourselves.

I have developed my confidence in being able to do simple tasks like speaking to new people on the phone and also speaking in front of people when assisting to run meetings. I have learnt lots of new skills in terms of technology and using the computer, our early careers team have also put training sessions in place for us to develop our skills on software such as Excel.

I enjoy the programme because we are always doing something a bit different. Some days we are going to lots of meetings and being out around the site meeting new people and then we also will get trusted to do reports and do some work for ourselves, which is a great challenge to see how much we are learning.

I think that our programme is really well organised, we move our placements every 4 months and our new managers are ready for us with objectives and are happy to help us settle in. Also we have every Thursday off during term time so that we can go to college. We have lots of reviews and 1 to 1's with various managers to ensure that we are on track and to make sure we don't have any problems.

I would say that we receive lots of support from our employer, if we need anything in terms of help with college we can ask for a tutor through work. If we need any support in terms of wellbeing and mental health we can go and speak to the Allright project. There are also various numbers that we can call for support.

As well as getting Thursdays off for college we can also go and use the training building to do college work. If we are struggling with a certain aspect of a module, the Early Careers team can help us organise a tutor within work, for example if we needed extra support with maths. Also our APM textbook is provided for us by the business.

I find that I can easily relate what we are doing in college to what I am doing in my placement. It helps my understanding when I am in the workplace, we gain a good background knowledge of the basics of our job role, which then we can develop within our placements so this also helps us with our qualification.

We can take part in stretch assignments which are great for doing things that we wouldn't normally get to do in our placements, such as the opportunity to have a lead role in a project. There are also activities such as badminton that we can do after work or doing charity walks.

Yes

Because I think that it is a great alternative to just going to university. While you are working you are also doing your degree, the qualifications and placements compliment each other and work well together. Also you are trusted as an adult more and you are trusted to do your own pieces of work.

My advice would be to give it a go. When you write your application make sure you check it for grammar and spelling mistakes. Be prepared when you go to your interview and to ask someone to practice an interview with you, and if you need to do a presentation think of a way that you can make yours unique.