IT Infrastructure Apprentice Review

My role involves studying for the exams for each of the placements of the apprenticeship (Networks, Servers, Cyber Security, Software Development, ITIL) whilst also shadowing my mentor to see how and what gets done in each placement. As a part of the shadowing, I get to have an insight into the inner workings of each department area and the people/technologies that keep things running smoothly.

As part of my networks placement, I've learned about switches, routers and firewalls and basic skills on how to set up these devices on a live network. Another new skill to me was IP addressing and the subnetting/supernetting that comes with it as well as DHCP, DNS, cloud services, types of network attacks and how to mitigate them, WAN infrastructure, wireless network standards, disaster recovery, remote access methods, network security, the list goes on. Part of my software development placement so far I have learned C# and SQL and how to integrate them into each other. I am not even halfway through my apprenticeship so I am excited to find out what I will come to learn in my other three placements.

It is very exciting for me to learn about how the technologies that we use on a day to day basis actually work, being able to put actual knowledge and explanations behind the buzzwords and technical jargon that you hear thrown around. It's nice to be able to actually understand what people are talking about or at the very least have a general understanding of the topic. The physical contact to the equipment also helps for me rather than just learning the "theory" side of things from reading off a whiteboard like in school which definitely wasn't beneficial to my visual way of learning. Everyone that I've come into contact with has been super friendly and helpful, taking time out of their day to help in any way they can.

The apprenticeship structure itself has had some teething problems from when I started, but i see this an understandable seeing as the apprenticeship is only 2 years old. I feel the communication between the placement mentors and the apprentice manager was not strong enough as many placement mentors were not sure what exam their apprentice was taking, or how much time should be allowed for the apprentice to be studying or to be shadowing. From speaking with last year's apprentice about their personal experience, the apprenticeship has taken big steps in the right direction to rectify this (which I have also seen) so I hope this will continue in the future as new apprentices join.

There is loads of support from my line manager and mentor if I needed it. There has not been a chance for me to utilise the support enough for me to comment on it but it is very nice to know how much there is if I ever needed it in the future. The monthly pastorals/regular e-mails also usually remind us that there is support for any problems we may have, no matter the topic.

There is an overwhelming amount of support related to the qualifications and exams. From multiple different online video training subscriptions, easy access to book resources, conversations with technical experts in the topic you are asking about, practice exams to test how close you are to being able to take the exam, etc. It's not out of the question to be able to have extra resources bought for us if it is agreed that it would benefit us and our studies.

The certifications being made available to us in this apprenticeship are above and beyond what I was expecting when I joined. It gives us five recognised, entry-level certifications in 5 different sections of IT (Networks, Cyber Security, Servers, Software Development, ITIL). It gives us a great understanding of the baseline of the 5 different topics, allowing apprentice out-turners to look back on their experiences in each one and see which area of IT they would like to pursue as a career. This is great for me personally as I am not confident enough to be able to choose an area of IT to jump headfirst into, this 2 year allows me to dip my toe into each area and come out the other side with a better understanding on where I should go in the future. (Having a wide variety of certifications also means you have a greater level of knowledge and choice if you end up changing careers in the future).

There are many initiatives available to us to be able to join many different groups such as WISE, BCS, etc. There are others for volunteering and helping the local community as well as charitable groups. I haven't looked into them so can't say much about them if I'm honest.

Yes

The resources that are available, people that you meet, skills you can learn, opportunities that can arise, knowledge you are able to get, benefits you can make use of, certifications available, and support that is given while working here is amazing so I am very happy that I applied here and even more that I started working here.

Be warned that the security clearance needed to get the job can take a very long time to come through, although for some people this is done very easily with no problems, depending on your background/history, this can take way more time than expected and can affect the start of the apprenticeship as you may not have the clearance to do certain aspects of the job. I realise this is nothing to do with the job itself as this is just a part of working for an employer like this.