Cyber Security Awareness & Engagment Apprentice Review

My role involves managing and maintain a group of employees called the IPN (Information Protection Network). This group of people helps us promote all of our cyber security training. I also have to create phishing lists for our monthly phishing tests. I have to speak to a lot of different people from all over the world on a day to day basis.

I have learnt loads of new skills since being in my apprenticeship. My communication skills have developed massively from having to talk to such a wide variety of people (e.g different languages, cultures, positions etc). Also I do usually have a large workload and I've been able to develop my planning and time management skills by making sure I prioritise my work and get it done on time and to a high standard.

I really enjoy my apprenticeship. Its a big change from school as you hold a lot of responsibility and get treated as a regular employee but I love having a lot of actual work to do instead of just sitting at a desk and learning things that probably don't interest me that much.

Very well structured. Monday-Thursday I'm working full time. I have a weekly catch up with my manager to go over things I've done, things I'm doing and things I need to do. On a Friday is my study day where at the moment I'm completing the coursework element of my studies and I have a monthly catch-up with my tutor to go over anything I don't understand.

Unilever have been an amazing company to work for. I've had support of loads of different people from our main Apprenticeship team to current older apprentices. AEA have also been very supportive throughout our time with them having a catch up every 6 weeks to see how were doing as people instead of just focusing on work.

At the moment I'm only competing the course work element of my course but I'm receiving a good amount of support from my tutor. The feedback I get from my missions are always very detailed and help me improve on my next mission. I also have monthly catch-ups with my tutor.

It helps me reflect on all of the work that I'm doing and makes me realise how many skills I'm gaining from this amazing experience. In my coursework I have to write about how I've met certain criteria in my role such as 'management' and i'm then able to see what I've done well and how I can improve next time.

There's lots of extra curricular activities to get involved in such as running club, crochet club, chess club, we have an onsite gym and then there's more serious roles you can get involved in voluntarily such as I'm an apprentice ambassador and I voluntarily go around different schools and promote apprenticeships and get involved in open evenings at PSL.

Yes

Because Unilever has been such a welcoming organisation and its been such a nice alternative to school. Even though its so different, its giving me so many skills which I would never have acquired if I had chosen the university route and I feel that a lot of people don't understand all of the benefits of apprenticeships and the wide range of apprenticeships which are out there.

Be yourself and don't take everything too seriously. In school we were basically brought up to think that a good grade is what will get us far in life but really employers are looking for other things such as your skills, enthusiasm and your personality. Even if you don't get the job in the end its always a good experience.