I&A Specialist Review

On a day to day basis I generally work on resolving data quality issues for the business and generating reports for internal use within the Information and Analytics team. I also facilitate the creation of new dashboards as according to specifications given by members of other teams for use by the leadership team.

I have developed my SQL query skills and also learnt skills in PowerBI MDX queries, and creating Excel Macros in Visual Basic and processing large amounts of data in a professional setting, and spotting outliers in data sets. Within my training I have learnt about Extract Transform Load operations and statistical modelling.

I am very lucky to have joined this apprenticeship as the benefits and company culture in this office are very good. I have been exposed to things far above and beyond what I would have expected from this apprenticeship and have been given many opportunities to further my career. The line managers all care about our success and make sure to make us aware of any opportunities available to us.

From the Unilever side, the apprenticeship has been great and well organised. Where I have been let down has been with Arch, there appears to be some sort of communication issue within their company structure which has lead to a very bumpy ride so far. This can be partially explained by the apprenticeship I am on being a new specification.

My employer has been incredibly impressive, they have provided me with ample opportunity to further my career inside and outside of the company, every member of the apprenticeship delivery team and the team I work in have been incredibly supportive and available to answer any questions or facilitate my needs.

Whilst the Arch Learning Development Coordinators have been great to work with, the management in Arch has let us down with regards to planning and executing of training sessions. There has been a great struggle in trying to get resources and answers to questions about particular competencies and how to meet them.

The qualification, level 4 data analysis concepts, has somewhat supported my role as finding outliers and presenting data correctly have been staples in my role as an Information and Analytics Specialist. However, more mathematical sides of the qualification have not come into my role at all and have been purely classroom based learning.

There are dozens of extra curricular activities available, gym, yoga, social and sustainability "pillars" that are involved heavily in driving the company towards certain goals such as mental health and sustainable living. There are also some apprentices which run their own clubs such as a photography club and a knitting club.

Yes

Unilever has a sustainable goal and a great company ethic. The work environment is very friendly and welcoming and the benefits are good. Everyone I have spoken to has been incredibly supportive and it is great to have experience working for such a large multi national company and seeing how they operate.

Unilever mainly looks for passion when interviewing, passion is very important in the field you are applying for and it is great to be able to show that you are very passionate about the field. Social skills are also valued highly as working in a team is a required skill.