Personal Banker Review

My day to day role as a personal banker involves speaking to customers on a face to face basis and helping them with their banking needs. This includes bank accounts and credit cards, Loans and Home Insurance. I also have vague conversations around mortgages, Life Protection, Investments and Business accounts. These discussions would be taken further by other colleagues in my branch.

Doing the job I currently do, I have learnt a whole lot of new skills - especially on specialised topics life Financial Planning and Mortgages. I would like to continue to do this to further my career in the bank and any other potential employer I go to in the future.

The apprenticeship is good - however, I struggle to understand what it is I am doing on a day to day basis. There is a lot of stuff on the App but it's hard to know what is relevant or not. My tutor keeps me right but it's all very "fluffy"

Not very structured at all - the topics in the app are all over the place. I would like the app to tell me exactly what it is I need to do (no more or no less) then I can do it. It has other "tasks" asking me to "do this and do that" but it isn't relevant to the missions I am meant to be doing. Just needs fine tuned I think

I did start to get a lot of support when it first started but it meant a lot of time away from doing my day to day job, which then affected my figures/targets. BAsed on a few conversations with my manager, I felt like I did it all on my own time. However, my boss was great in helping me organise community events etc for my missions

I saw my tutor once every 6 weeks or so. She was good and knowledgeable and approachable and always answered my phone calls. As I said, she saw me every 6 weeks where she would support me and go through a lot of information with me to help me complete my course.

The actual training sessions we went on were brilliant and I gained a lot of knowledge through them. The Exam also cemented the regulatory requirements of the role I am doing at work. The missions I thought were a little bit irrelevant however, it was good to raise money for some charities

Yes there are a few. There is normally local community events we take part in every summer - whether it's painting a retirement home, or doing up a big garden or building stuff. We have also taken part in community events in the branch including a Branch Bake off competition as well as going to the local community and doing scam awareness events or fraud awareness events

Yes

They are a great company to work for and have always been good to me. I started off as a Protection Advisor and when that role was make redundant they offered me the role I am currently doing and have asked me to do this apprenticeship which I am really enjoying

Do it!!!! - Good company to work for and good bank and good reputation. I would make them aware that Santander have high standards and they should be ready to work hard and learn fast whilst having a great support network of colleagues as well as a lot of experience throughout the company.