Technology Degree Apprentice Review

During university term time, I complete my studies just like any other BSc Computer Science student at the University of Birmingham. During the summer holidays and year in industry (equivalent of third year in a sandwich degree course), I work at PwC in one of their technology areas. This summer I've worked in the Ideas Refinery which is part of Assurance, which involves working on various small scale and large scale projects that have been designed using technology to improve the quality and efficiency of services that the firm delivers. On a day to day basis, I have daily catch up calls to check up on the work I've completed so far, as well as being left on my own or in my team to do the task(s) I've been given.

I've developed my Google Sheets skills as well as learning Python, to use selenium for automation testing. I've also learnt a lot about knowledge graphing on an online platform that uses an XML language to develop a chatbot. These are areas that I hadn't explored during the year on my university course. However, I would have appreciated to be challenged more in the technical areas (felt a bit of a step backwards from the content of my university degree).

I really enjoy my programme because it's a brilliant opportunity to experience university life while also gaining a significant amount of work experience, building my network and also getting paid a salary. I have enjoyed the academic rigour of my university course and really appreciate the frequent contact I've had so far during the university year with my employer, to help ease my way onto the summer placement. I also thought the induction week was great, and really helped me look forward to my placement. There could be a bit more organisation of the programme in general but I understand this may be due to this being the first year our technology degree apprenticeship has been run.

The programme has been organised okay, but there are definitely some improvements that could be made. We don't seem to get enough information about placements until we actually start them and it would be good to plan things in advance. There's also the issue that our exam period at Birmingham seems to overlap slightly with the start of our summer placements which isn't ideal. I hope with more people going through the programme each year the organisation improves. The induction week was, however, extremely well organised and we have a great support system in place.

We receive a lot of support through various avenues. We have a career coach (during placements), a buddy who works at PwC, regular tripartite meetings (joint meetings with our programme lead and personal tutor at university) and we have a business contact during our placement to keep in regular contact with. It would be better if there was a bigger team heading up the programme as sometimes we have important questions to ask and they don't get answered quickly when they may be urgent.

We have termly tripartite meetings which are quite useful but the support we get is not focused on our academic studies but it's targeted towards understanding and improving our overall degree apprenticeship experience. I really enjoy studying towards my degree in Computer Science - it's challenging but very enjoyable. I think to improve the programme we should have a buddy system so degree apprentices who are older can give advice to the younger apprentices coming through the programme - I think I would have benefitted from this sort of help at the start of the university year.

As technology degree apprentices, we should be involved in technical work however this significantly varies throughout the cohort and seems to depend how lucky people are with the team they're placed in. I've been given some quite technical work but on a day-to-day basis, my Computer Science degree hasn't provided me with invaluable insight for the role. I haven't put any of the theory I've learnt to practice although I can see that this could be due to the variety of work at PwC and the opportunities for technology not being quite so far reaching yet.

We get notifications from Google+ communities about special events (for example I'm signed up to the Women in Tech Google+ group) and there are sports teams available as well as volunteering initiatives which are well publicised. However, some of the network groups (eg BAME, Christian network) seem to have little information available about them and websites that haven't been updated. There is also the issue of social activities being largely dependent on the team you're in - most other people on my programme attended several socials during their placement whereas I never had the chance to attend any as my team didn't have them. This would have been ideal because I think social activities are a great way of networking.

Yes

This particular programme is a great deal: tuition fees paid for, earn a salary, do a Computer Science degree at a Russell Group university and gain lots of work experience as well as developing your network at one of the top professional services firms. There's even a job offer at the end of it too, without the need to accept it if you don't want to! It's a brilliant opportunity where I've met some amazing people and I'm learning a lot about the world of work through my time on the programme.

Although not necessary, it would be ideal to have some programming experience if applying for the technology degree apprenticeship as I found the step up from A Levels extremely difficult as I had no experience doing Computer Science before. In general, I would advise to do a lot of research into the company as you will be working there for two summers and a whole year so it's important that you think you're a good fit for PwC and think you'll enjoy working there. I would also say to relax at the assessment day and just take everything in your stride, it's also an opportunity to make sure you like the university and the representatives from PwC.