Software Developer Apprentice Review

My role includes working with the existing developers at The National Archives to improve our digital services. Therefore I write code, attend stand-ups, contribute to development discussions, work in collaboration with the UX and editorial staff, and even lead my own development projects at times. I write HTML, CSS, PHP, Javascript and Python code right now.

I have picked up and developed a wide range of skills while working at TNA. My development skills have increased significantly as I have worked with very knowledgeable developers in my department. My communication skills have improved from being involved in meetings and stand ups. My time management skills have improved as well as my organisation skills.

I enjoy the the work aspect of the apprenticeship a lot - I believe they have gotten the balance right between giving us work that challenges us and allowing us to develop our skills at a pace that suits us. My colleagues in Digital Services are very friendly and treat us as if we were already full time employees. The college aspect is a bit hit and miss - sometimes it is great, and sometimes it is not. I believe this is because the college do not have a stable stream of quality lecturers as well as teaching resources, so you never know what a week at college is going to be like. For work I would say 10/10, and for college I would say 6/10.

At work, the programme is structured very well. We had a slower paced start which gave us time to get comfortable with working full time and working in the environment. We were given more side-project work as time passed, and then we were gradually integrated with the department and began working on main projects. At college, there are issues with the structure. As they are trying to teach us a lot in a week, at times the teaching can feel rushed. It also feels like they are understaffed, so the in-house lecturers seem very busy which makes it harder to get help with coursework and exam preparation. Sometimes they hire external lecturers to teach us only for the week we are at college, which can be a problem, as for some lecturers it was hard to contact them outside the week they were contracted to teach us. For work, I would say 10/10, and again for college 6/10.

The National Archives provide excellent support for us. They treat us like full time employees, and therefore allow us to be flexible with our working, with things such as flexible working time and working from home. Our managers have weekly catch ups with us and make sure any issues we have at work are resolved as soon as possible. The amount of pressure they put on us is the right amount in my opinion, and are very supportive.

We are supported in ways such as providing us with talks to try and enhance our understanding of the tech industry and they share helpful technology resources with us. I believe the college are trying their best to provide us with good support, however there have been issues with their communication to us, and providing levels of support for coursework and exams. I think this stems from the staff having too much on their plate to be able to dedicate themselves to supporting us, however this is improving as they have hired new staff who seem to answer our questions in a timely manner. The staff are very friendly though, and are working hard to improve. Our cohort were the first to go through the college, so they were learning with us.

My qualification has been helping me perform in my role. I was given a Machine Learning task, and I wouldn't have been able to do it without the skills I learnt in one of our modules at ADA college. We also got introduced to SDLC before we started working, which was helpful.

I have played football socially at TNA and have also played for their team in an 11-a-side game. I am part of the sports and social club as well. There are many opportunities such as fitness classes, quiz nights and weekly bar nights to participate in if I chose to do so.

Yes

The working environment is nice and well maintained, the location is very good and the staff are very friendly. There are a lot of opportunities to learn and you get to work on new problems, such as archiving digital records for future. There are also many employee benefits such as discounts and flexible working time.

Visit The National Archives to get an understanding of the public facing facilities. Look at our GitHub page (github.com/nationalarchives) to see what the digital departments are working on. Play around with our online services, such as Discovery. Look at documents such as GDS and the civil service code.