Relationship ManagementApprentice Review

My role is to support my Relationship Directors with the portfolios within the Financial Institutions sector. I am first line support for our customers with there day to day banking queries ranging from on boarding and KYC to being part of the deal team and helping them with there strategy moving forward. I accompany my Directors to business review meetings in which we review our relationship with out customer and plan for the year ahead post meeting I will create a business review and a shared relationship plan with our customer.

Since starting my apprenticeship I have learnt how to utilise my time a lot better, in a fats paced environment with many jobs on the go at once it is important to prioritise and utilise your time in order to meet deadlines either internally or set by a customer. Also I would say from the scheme itself I have become a lot more organised as at times there has been a lot of confusion around my chartered banker scheme.

I thoroughly enjoy my day job, the people I work with daily and the wider team I believe everyone is highly professional and this is definitely the career path in which I would like to grow further in to. The scheme itself however I believe has been poorly organised there is very little communication it seems between BPP and Chartered banker to the extent we only found out I assignment due date a week ago. My skills development coach has been very helpful but I have found our weekly webinars with our tutor lacking in motivation and actually not being able to ask a lot of questions that the apprentices have in all fairness I have found it more useful to work in my own time and study myself this linked with working in banking previously meaning I can be utilise by the team adds pressure.

In my opinion this hasn't been great experience personally from an RBS point of view I cannot fault the support given by my line managers and the introduction in to the business I have been given in regards to getting to see other areas of the business and the exposure I have been given. Programme wise very little organisation hardly no demonstration how to use the various platforms a breakdown in communication between BPP and Chartered Banker. I feel as if once you obtain your place on the scheme apart from the introduction meetings that are held you are left to stand on your own to feet quite a bit.

I couldn't fault the support I've been given from my employer my line manager provides daily support and holds weekly one to ones with me to ensure he knows where I am with my work. My Line Manager had made me feel that no question is a silly questions and hands me responsibility and ultimately trusts me.

Very little, nobody has reached out to ask how I'm getting on with my assessment other than a half hour call every few months. The weekly webinars I prove to be difficult when you cant speak yourself and also the tutor cannot answer a number of questions. As stated in a previous answer I believe you are left on your own a great deal.

In my opinion what I do in my day and job and what I have been studying on the scheme has very little link. I fully appreciate ethics and legislation is something used in every day banking but specifically to my role learning about various lending channels and understanding Financial Institutions and banking terminology would have been more beneficial to perform my role better.

Yes, I have participated in out of work activities such as football. I have also took part in CSR days within the community helping develop an eco park. My team also hold various social events which I believe helps create a good working environment where you can get to know your colleagues better.

Yes

Having worked for RBS for 3 years and on the scheme for the past 7 months as an employer RBS are great in developing young bankers. My line manager understands my strengths and abilities and allows me exposure which I don't believe I would receive with a different bank.

I would advise new starters to ask to spend time with other areas of the business that you interact with daily such as product partners to gain a better understand of the business model and how the service we provide to our customers works hand in hand. If joining on a scheme to fully understand how this will link in with your day job to decide if it is for you or not.