Deputy Market Leader Review

I manage a team of mortgage advisors across a large geographical region. My responsibilities include managing business performance whilst ensuring regulatory requirements are met and recorded correctly. My role consists of visiting branches whilst balancing this with completing admin duties from home. I have 9 advisors who report into me, and work with a senior area manager to total 16 advisors ensuring we are available to help as many customers with their mortgage and protection needs as possible. My activity timescales are generally done quarterly but there are some with rolling deadlines spread across the team.

I've developed my existing skills of managing my time and workload, I need to ensure I am highlighy organised so that deadlines are not missed and that work can be done to a high quality. I have learnt new skills around influence stakeholders who may be a higher grade than me or have more experience in their roles. I have massively developed my ability to manage a remote team as each of my reports sit in different locations.

I only started my programme in January so have had just the 2 study blocks, and I'm still in the process of learning how to get the right balance between doing my day to day role and my apprenticeship activities. My normal role duties do not get picked up by anyone else while I'm studying, and the workload was already fairly high, so I am having to give up personal time with friends on occassions. I find the information we study really interesting as it's relevant to the role that I'm doing, and find that it makes me more consicous in my day to day actions with my team and when reflecting on my own performance.

It's very well organised. [This section of the comment has been removed by a member of the RateMyApprenticeship Team because it did not meet our site terms and conditions] does a great job in coordinating a number of different cohorts and making sure that we're all booked into the right places on the right dates. There's a lot of material to cover and lots of different dates for module deadlines but each of the lecturers seem to be aware of this work load and cross reference each other which makes it more manageable.

This is a difficult question to answer. My line manager is very supportive of me completing this degree and recognises the workload involved, but isn't that proactive in asking if any workload can be taken off me to support with my studies. The role that we're in has an extremely high workload anyway, and so there isn't really room for him to pick up any activities to support with my studies.

Amazing support - and it's tailored to what everyone needs. Every lecturer and trainer has offered their own time on an individual basis if needed, and addressed how this can be used when we've been talking about our assignments. I find having a personal tutor very useful also as I always have that one person to refer to if needed. I haven't had to go to any of these yet but I know if I needed to that they would be there.

I think this is very relevant. I'm in a leadership role at the moment and it's my ambition to continue up this route and so when we're talking about specific techniques or theories it's easy to apply this to an every day example to make things more practical. I find that this not only helps with my understanding of theories but also contributes to my mind thinking of critiques as there will always be examples where theories don't apply all the time.

Yes, to an extent. Barclays have activities available through what's called a citizenship portal, this offers the opportunity to take part in charity events such as raffles, fetes, sports matches, or even run your own one and seek further support. You can also sign up for life skills events here where you complete an activity in a school to help children with managing their finances, interview skills etc. They have a career academy where you can look for mentors also.

Yes

They have fantastic benefits as an employer by way of health insurance, pensions, holidays, and all the things available from My Rewards, which makes it a lifetime employer. They have a massive colleague agenda where a number of support tools are available to help you as a person whether this is to support you from a wellbeing perspective, financially, or whatever. The main thing for me is that they live everything through the values, so that you know if you display the right behaviours you will always be safe at work.

Be passionate and motivated as we're always looking for people with the right attitude. We want people to want to do a good job, rather than work here just to receive their paycheck. The main focus is on customer outcomes - going above and beyond to do what's right for the customer as opposed to hitting certain targets.