Clinical Trial Specialist Apprentice Review

My role as an apprentice is currently to shadow a Global Study Associate (GSA) in the management of their tasks in a Clinical Trial with the endpoint that I will be able to complete a GSA role for a study independently. As I am only 6 months in to my apprenticeship my current responsibilities and tasks are summarised here; facilitating meetings, following up with our CRO contact on their responsibilities, quality checking and filing documents into our eTMF, external vendor communication and follow up, taking part and observation in study meetings, discussing solutions to any issues that arise, site communication and supporting periodic QC activities by liaising with different functions. External to my study work I am also taking part in older paper TMF work with quality checking and close out procedures. I am also involved in developing the department's SharePoint page under some guidance.

When I first started in my apprenticeship all of the relevant training was undertaken before any introduction to the role was done which was very good and put a lot of focus on the health and safety first aspect of the company. As a part of the apprenticeship, I have taken part in training days which have been focused on developing workplace skills such as presentation skills, learning your individual way of learning and workplace behaviours. Further to this, I have completed roughly 70 SOP trainings which have expanded my knowledge of the Clinical Trial procedures before having observed or undertaken any of the tasks. This helped my understanding when learning and also allowed me to raise relevant questions. These are also regular company trainings on such topics as 'bullying', 'harassment' and 'Social media'. The main skill I am learning and developing is communication with others, be this internal or external. It is a very key skill to the job role and is a constant learning curve. Further to this, some other skills I have developed or improved on in my role so far include; email writing, attention to detail, use of software (Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, BOX, MS Teams, Skype), organisational skills, time management, people management and observational skills. There are plenty of everyday skills which are constantly being developed through my exposure in this job role.

I cannot say a bad word about the company culture or my team. I have never felt so supported in a job role before and there isn't anyone that I would be nervous to go to and ask a question. The team, although hard working, always make time to appreciate the work you do, offer advice, celebrate success and celebrate personal matters as well. The office has a very relaxed atmosphere and the seating layout doesn't distinguish between job role which breaks down the hierarchy barriers which I have felt in previous job roles. The apprenticeship itself is slightly different to how I imagined it when I applied but this is mainly to do with my lack of knowledge about Clinical Trials. Now I know what the job entails and what sort of roles I am developing my skills towards, I am very impressed in the role and the opportunities that AZ is giving to their apprentices. I do enjoy the work and it is a role which suits me perfectly due to the structure and organisational skills that are required to complete the role.

From an apprenticeship point of view, the programme is well organised. There is an apprenticeship lead who organises all of the apprentice specific training and regularly checks that we are ok. This person was our first point of contact when beginning on the course and ensured all the required inductions were completed. From a role point of view, there was a bit of down time at the start of the apprenticeship when the only task to complete that SOP training. Once this was raised we were given more tasks to complete alongside this to break up the reading. I do have a plan of the points/ tasks I need to reach by the end of each year which helps me focus on the areas and know what evidence I need for my apprenticeship. From a study point of view, I found Kent to be a bit unorganised but I think this was due to none of the apprentices having access to their systems on the induction day so we couldn't see and try them out. This caused some information to be lost or forgotten and lead to confusion over a few things in the first few months.

I have never felt more supported in a role. Even from the interview stage to get the role we were reassured that there would be a number of people directly in contact with us to support us and gave us people further to this which would be there in case we needed further support. This was from an apprenticeship, work and study point of view. From starting the role, AZ have completely lived up to this. Directly supporting me I have a mentor whom I shadow daily and have meetings twice a week with, a manager I have biweekly meetings with, a buddy who is a higher year apprentice and a learning advisor from Kent. Indirectly, I can get in touch with the apprentice manager, anyone in my team, other apprentices (Older or in my year). I genuinely wouldn't have reservations approaching anyone. Any feedback I get is constructive, any issues I am having work wise or personal is said with trust and AZ as a company ensure my health comes before the job which I really appreciate as not every company gives that level of support on an non-judgemental level.

My support link to Kent university is mainly through my learning advisor and we have bi-monthly meetings face-to-face at my place of work. These meetings are good but it can sometimes feel like the questions are just a tick box and aren't particularly tailored to the individual. Other support connections are via our remote learning platform where we can IM with tutors. This is great but was one of the areas which was not fully explained in our induction so the function wasn't being utilise to its full potential by apprentices. Going forward I feel a lot more supported due to these issues being raised and resolved. With regards to enjoying the course, I do not find it very relevant to my apprenticeship or role but the topics are interesting. I mainly struggle with the 'In the workplace' assignments which is directed towards lab based learning but I am office based and have to do a lot more research to get the same level of answer and understanding.

Unfortunately my qualification isn't directly related to my day-to-day job role at all. It gives me some more scientific knowledge behind the drug development and understanding of the IMP but my day-to-day role is more to do with the management of the Trial itself and TMF work not the science behind the drug. I have seen that some future modules are focused solely on Clinical Trials so I hope that will be more specific to this apprenticeship.

Both with apprentices or the company itself, there are always activities or social gatherings to attend whether it be a celebrating success of a study, a birthday celebration, an apprentice outing, a fundraising or the Christmas party. Personally I am on the Apprentice charity committee where we organise fundraisers and volunteer our time for our charity of choice. Further to this there is a dedicated apprentice to organise social events specifically for the apprentices and there is always an event on every couple of weeks. Other than this there is different pages of our work social media platform which allows people with the same interests to link together for example I am in a group called AZ Musicians.

Yes

AZ highly values its employees with great support systems, understanding of personal situations, development opportunities and benefits. AZ has some great core values which it sticks to and encourages all employees to do the same. AZ has such initiatives as improving our impact on the planet which not only is inline with other companies but goes further to create an even more positive impact such as an aim to be carbon negative rather than just carbon neutral. All of this tell me AZ is a great company that isn't only focused on the output of it's employees.

I would advice to ask a lot of questions at the interview stage to make sure the role is what you definitely want to do because 5 years is a long commitment. I would also make sure that you read up on the area and the company to make sure it is a good fit for yourself. Other than that , just out yourself out there because working for this company is worth the nerves of an interview and the risk of rejection. When you do get a place, say yes to every opportunity that comes your way and get involved as much as you can to make sure you are really getting the most out of your apprenticeship!