BHAP - Leadership & Management Review

In my day to day role i am assisting team leaders with data analysis of the stats for their team who are on the phones, as well as looking after teams in the absence of team leaders when they are away on holiday. I also look after projects which you can investigate yourself and push it forward

From the job rotations i have learnt better presentation techniques and skills, as well as becoming efficient in Excel, which has been a huge help, as much of the data is now self sufficient. I have also learnt the importance of communication as well as leadership skills, such as those people skills which you can only learn through experience

I quite enjoy the freedom that the job role brings, however a lot of the time it can be a struggle to get across that us BHAPs aren't there just to do the dirty work for team leaders, which is how we can come across sometimes. Besides this i thoroughly enjoy the job side of the degree. The university side is less enjoyable; a part of it is obviously the difficult reports and timely presentations, however a large proportion of it is students messing around during lectures at university, which puts the whole cohort off

I am not aware of a set structure in this programme, i was told by a second year apprentice taht we would be doing an outward bound type thing called Brathay, however it doesn't look like we'll be doing this. This is unfortunate as it sounded enjoyable. I don't believe the structure of the course is good, i'm not sure of who to contact at work if i'm having issues with my rotations etc, and there isn't a set path for us to follow. The only time anyone from Barclays will talk to us about our course is when they get worried about feedback such as this. It's unfortunate as the programme has loads of potential, and is unfair that due to funding we don't get equal opportunities to everyone else. For example Brathay, and introducing the new BHAPS to work, but they are stopping this apprenticeship, so i feel we're being disregarded by Barclays.

From Barclays very little support is given to us- we've now lost funding, as evidenced by not attending Brathay, as well as stopping the apprenticeship for future years. We don't get any correspondence from anyone at Barclays- the only occasion i had a call with the apprentice lead was when they informed us that they were leaving.

We get good quality tutor sessions and have set up with personal tutors who we can contact if we ever have any issues with anything - it's a lot better structured than the work side of things. The only improvement i would suggest is to get the same systems for everything - as we had 4 or 5 logins for various websites and it can get ontop of you a lot of the time

It has aided in self reflection to realise what i'm looking for in my next rotation, and patience from learning in a group task with varying levels of ability and temperament. Other than this i feel that the uni side and the work side are very distant and can't see them interrelating

There are several wellbeing activities that take place such as gym sessions across the road, besides this i'm not aware of any other events that take place. This would be useful with networking as it would enable you to put yourself out there and experience new parts of the bank.

Yes

They have good career opportunities, however i would wait until there is clarity in this job role, as no one anywhere has a clue what we're meant to be doing- no one has helped make us aware of the different areas at work other than the normal community banking. I would use Barclays as a stepping stone and help form a future career elsewhere.

Look at other options as well. The interview process is long winded, poorly organised and is in need of change from competency based to personality based. All of my correspondence was through email whereas others had correspondence on the phone. The interview dates were right in the middle of exams and as such, probably did hinder my ability to do as well in my A level exams. Also there was uncertainty about what the job entailed - but we still dont know