Apprentice Project Manager Review

Having calls with the suppliers and checking the actions register to make sure they are on track or any updates to actions which already occur and why they may be running late. Gathering information for quarterly reviews ect, and making sure if suppliers send in deliverables they are sent to the right engineers so they can check them and then send them back to suppliers if there are any comments which need addressing.

I have developed my communication skills and how to communicate with different stakeholders, some it may be easier to go over to their desk and speak face to face and others will be easier to email. I have received my professional APM qualification and my Level 4 in project management

I've never really enjoyed the programme, this is a mix between Blackpool and the Flyde College and BAE. I feel the college have been awful over the last 2 and a half year in providing us with support with our assignments for our foundation degree. We also have yearly placements at work but they are picked for us from senior leadership, who most people do not know who they are, so I struggle to understand how they know what is best for us to go into for our next placement.

Structure has got better in the last year since we have had a skills coach who helped a lot with the end point assessment and for our college work. I think the apprenticeship could be organised a lot better, sometimes we dont know how our college set up until a few days before.

In regards to college I think we could receive more from the employer but the year group seem to come together to help eachother out. However I have had a lot of medical appointments in the last year and BAE have been very supportive and understanding, I have been able to work from home when I needed to.

In our final year of our foundation degree with Blackpool and the Flyde college we only had a lecturer every other week, which I don't think is acceptable as we only have college once a week anyway. When we started 2020, we were then told a week before we started semester 2 that our lecturer was leaving the college so they were going to teach us the whole semester in 4 days and then if we needed any help we could email the college. When doing a foundation degree I don't think this is a lot of support to be receiving, especially when you work full time as well.

I like learning the theory side of project management and then seeing how they are applied to a real life situation. This really helps in the everyday job and then you can ask questions to the project manager on the project and see how they do certain activities which you may not have thought of.

I personally do not take part with any activities with work but I know there are some available. For exam I know there is a lot of sport which others in my year take part in, such as football. BAE also have opportunities for us to attend conferences such as women in project management

No

I feel the experience which I have had with the college has had a massive effect on the answer to the question, however I am hoping this will improve when we move over to Portsmouth Uni to complete our level 6. I feel like on open days BAE say you are able to choose your placements, but it is now senior leadership who do that for us, which I don't think should happen

Take time on the application process as it is long and make sure you go back and check this. I would research the company and make sure it is something you are interested in as it is very heavily engineered based and even though you learn the project management skills which you can take anywhere, the scheme is 5 years which is a very long time to be studying something you aren't interested in.