Information Security Apprentice Review

I work in the factory security team within Unilever which focuses on rolling out a programme of work which consists of 6 work pacakges to imporve our overall security posture. My day to day tasks vary and focus on enabling the success of these work pacakges to imporve our security posture a small ammount at a time.

I have learnt many new skills such as the ability to communicate well with the higher bussiness, soft skills such as presenting and imoroving my information security knowledge and technical network knolwedge. I have been focusing on developing these skills and will continue to focus and develop them further in the last year of my apprenticeship

I really do enjoy the programme and the time i spend i unilever, i find the university apsect challanging and from that i learn a lot, i also find the enjoyment of working alongside more experienced and willing collegues 4 days a week very helpful and enjoyable also. Thanks to this i am feeling more prepared for the future

I think that the programme is very well organised and well structured, and its delivery is pretty good as well. There are times (very few off) when items are delivered poorly such as TMA being very close together and i feel that some improvement could be made in this area, such as structuing the modules / TMA dates at better time - but overall the programme is well structed.

I recieve a large ammount of support from my host employer Unilever and a fair ammount of support from my employer manpower. I feel i get the help and support i need to properly grow and to facilitate my learning to a good level within this programme. I am happy with the level of support from my employer.

I receive a good ammount of help from the Open University when i am completeing my qualification with them. If i ever need anything all i have to do is ask and a reply is with me usually within a few hours but maxium 1-2 days. I am rarely in a possition where i cannot receive help if i ask for it.

I feel that the training i get from the open university in regards to learning material and assignmnets assist in my role in some aspects and not in others. For example i may make use of soem coding / programming sklills, or overall bussiness understanding etc but some more specific items are not convered in my role. I would say all the material is worth understanding, but i make use of around 25% of it within my current role which helps improve my performance.

There are social activties, soem sports and some proffesional networking events (on occasion) at my place of work. These are really good to get invovled in espeically when initally starting as it improves networking and is a way to introduce yourself to people whom you would usualy work direclty with within your role.

Yes

Unilever is an extremely pleasent palce to work, i always feel looked after and welcomed at work with the felxability and trust to perfrom my best. I feel the ethos and working atmostphere in Unilever is matched by very few organistions around the world and i have never had a role within a company where i feel so integrated into the community / bussiness.

If you are applying for Unilever it is important to stand out from the crowd in anyway possible. Do not pretend to be something you are not, be confident bu not overpowering, and have the ability to listen when needs be but not too quiet where you become an absent member of a meeting etc.