Higher Apprentice Review

I am an Agricultural Manager with a small portfolio of 100 customers at this present time which has gradually grown from the first 40 I received last September. Day to day I speak to my customers and provide solutions to their problems and needs and I am their point of contact within Barclays.

I am continually developing and enhancing skills I already had and I have started to develop a whole range of new ones that come with experience and doing this role. Communication and relationship building along with developing have been the most important to develop and build upon. Time management and organisation play huge parts too.

Before starting this role I had no idea what to expect, when people asked I said the job I think will be going out to farms and having a cup of tea and slice of cake. fast forward 21 months and the job is as I expected, although albeit without the cake. it is a fantastic opportunity to get professional qualifications and gain a vast amount of experience. I love my job and it was the best decision I made in regards to employment.

I was one of the first 6 Agricultural Apprentices within Barclays so to begin with things were a bit uncertain on the structure and how we would progress but as we have developed naturally into the roles, the structure has formed around us to provide the second cohort a better start to the apprenticeship.

My employer maintains regular contact with weekly check ins with myself and a full review every 5 weeks or thereabouts and I am able to raise any concerns, challenges and successes I have faced. There is a full system in place to support my development with the focus on quality.

The LIBF have points of contact for us to approach if we require any assistance, their library team are fantastic for academic work, whether that is referencing, finding sources or answering any questions. With regards to the program support, there seems to be an issue with keeping the managers as we are now on our second or third program point of contact.

The degree is invaluable in gaining the necessary background banking knowledge that more experienced colleagues have naturally by being employed by the bank for a number of years previous and have worked in different and diverse roles. this extra knowledge helps arm me with the tools to have the confidence in my understanding and ability to deal with a variety of requests.

We regularly attend KBI events (Key Business Interests) which are good to get along to as many as possible when starting in a new role or location as it puts a face to the name and gives better rise for better relationships to form. There is always opportunities to support colleagues in different parts of the bank with their events too which gets good exposure to different KBI's, customers and experiences.

Yes

They have given me a fantastic start to a career in banking with the chance to earn a degree along with a salary and not start my working life with a huge wad of student debt hanging over me that I will never pay back. there are also plenty of staff benefits that also greatly help.

Be honest and yourself, the bank has its core values of RISES and individuals that can not only display these qualities in an interview but also demonstrate their abilities outside of normal activities such as school and other education but having other interests and passion is key. Best of luck.