Apprentice Review

On a normal day of the work I will commute to the office, log into my company laptop at a hotdesk and check my emails. My day usually consists of doing work, such as coding to work towards my apprenticeship, as well as meetings in person or over the phone.

I have firstly developed the pre-existing skills that I had in software development, such as coding, the project life cycle and working with a team. I have also learned new coding languages as well as how to write code effectively and work with a pear in order to increase the quality of code.

There are some things that are more enjoyable than others, the learning I did with Makers Academy was fairly enjoyable, however, it was a lot of learning at one time, which meant that it was a while before I started my practical work, day to day work at he company varies, some days are more enjoyable than others.

The learning block at the start of the course was not that organised at the start, but then after a few weeks was well organised and there was a lot of support offered from the coaches. The practical work is less organised, it was something new to me and took a while to get used to.

I have a manager who works in a different office to me, but I can contact and they are very helpful whenever I have a question. There is also a HR number than can be called which is easy to use and has resolved the problems I have gone to them with. There is also a student team which can be contacted for information regarding the course.

The training provider offers a good amount of support, there are many coaches available during the training part of the course. You can contact them and they will help you to learn the content, and answer any questions that you have. There are also chat rooms where you can talk with other apprentices and people from the training provider.

I think that what I have learnt from the training provider has allowed me to better understand the work that I do on a day to day basis. I have not applied everything that I learnt into my role, but still a good amount of it has been relevant to me.

I am not involved in any extra curricular activities myself, however, I know that there is a sports and social club for every office, there are also events held that can be attended by many people from different offices, such as events or trips like golf or horse racing. This has a monthly fee that goes towards paying for the events.

Yes

I think that I would recommend CGI to a friend because it is a large company that can offer a lot of opportunities. There are also a lot of other apprentices in each office which you can socialise with. The training provider is also good at teaching the material and offer a lot of support when learning

I would say it is important to make yourself stand out, ensure that you aren't quiet during the assessment day. You should be confident in your abilities and what you have learned in the past. Everyone at CGI is friendly, so try not the worry and just give it your best shot.