T&O Degree apprentice Review

Currently working within Monitoring solutions my daily task require me to create help files for various different projects, which are request through a tool called JIRA I also have continual work on a independent project that both my line manager and myself have decided is best to increase the productivity of the team

Skills that I have enhanced would have to be communication, adapting to rapid change and listen to understand rather than listening to respond. New skills that i have developed would be that I have learnt the importance and the over affect on the business monitoring has had. I have learnt very simple monitoring processes and hope to expand my scope in the future.

It has been a great experience so far, however there are limitations on choosing our specialisms. And the different placements we actually have access to. If you would like to work for a specific team you have to make the arrangement yourself and set that up yourself. the structure of the company also makes it difficult to spend a placement (6-9 months) so there is little opportunity to do a subject area that you are most interested in.

The structure within the Santander apprenticeship programme is very well organised in comparison to some others. We are given 3 options for specialism Data, Software and Cyber. We aim to get a placement in each so that when we make a choice for university it is coherent with our choice within the workplace.

The team within Santander are very open so I can regularly approach them if needed anything. However, with that being said I do receive regular support from my employer for various issues I have encountered, whether it be in regards to my qualification or working within my designated placement itself.

There is little to no support provided by the training provider, and am very unclear about what is going on during the lectures most of the time. We originally had a point of call during our apprenticeship scheme however she wasn't very useful and was slow to resolve any simple problems we encountered. We now no longer have a representative from the provider.

During my time in BPP it has become apparent even after moving placements that some of the modules we have study have not been useful for me in the workplace. Even though I work in the technology side of the bank I have not needed to use Python nor had the opportunity to code anything in python. This is due to being given standard BAU work rather than development based work.

There are extra curricular activities that ones can attend but it is often based on how much work you have to complete otherwise it would be difficult to justify attending. Santander are very involved in a lot of different charities that raise awareness on a range of different issues such as Dementia.

Yes

With anything you need a company or an employer to help jump start your career and Santander is great for that. Especially if you are coming into this not really having a clear indication of what you want to specialise in. It also gives you the opportunity to have an idea of how the bank operates and how they all help each other.

Advice that i would give someone applying is that the group exercise in the assessment centre holds more weight than your interview. I say this because employer want to see how well you work in a group setting rather than what previous knowledge you have in the subject field, as long as you show a willingness to learn