Emerging Talent Co-ordinator Apprentice Review

I work within the emerging talent team and help to manage all of the apprenticeships within the business - both early careers apprentices and emerging talent apprentices (current employees enrolling onto an apprenticeship). This involves tracking emerging talent applications, organising training sessions, completing monthly reporting on apprenticeships within the AA and collecting and collating feedback regarding our courses.

As this is my first full time job, I have developed a large variety of new skills from my job role. This includes soft skills that are transferable to all business settings as well as commercial skills that are useful for the AA. I have also been able to develop existing skills such as my communication skills.

I thoroughly enjoy my programme as it has allowed me to build up a lot of commercial awareness and has given me knowledge and skills that are transferable and could be applied within many different business settings. I have received lots of support throughout my programme from both the training provider and the AA.

The programme is extremely well structured - it is very clear what happens at each stage of the programme and the workshops are evenly spread out across the duration of the programme to allow you to have time to complete the activities and challenges. There are also regular review meetings with your skills coach. The AA support this by always allowing me to have 20% off the job training.

My employer has been very supportive throughout the duration of the programme. My manager always tries to be available to join my review meetings to see what progress I have made within the programme and will provide updates and comments to my skills coach about how I am going within my job role. My manager always allows me time to complete me apprenticeship work and regular offers her help.

My training provider is also very supportive. I have had a skills coach assigned to me throughout the duration of the course. We regularly have review meetings and an invitation to the next meeting is arranged during the review meetings so we always a date arranged. My skills coach is contactable at all times so if I have a question between reviews, I can email or call her and she will offer her support. The tutors are supportive during the workshops.

My course helps me to understand businesses more as a whole and therefore I can use this knowledge to apply it to the AA and my job role. This more in depth understanding of our company means that I can further understand the importance of my role and how I can perform to the highest quality.

We annually hold a Christmas party that all employees are able to attend - these are held in an external location. Furthermore, within the Basingstoke office there are various different exercise activities such as yoga classes which are available to all employees. Also there are often quizzes held in fanum house after work.

Yes

The AA is a great company to work for. I have received so much support since starting there and I feel like there is a great focus on career progression and helping employees to upskill. I have found it to be a great opportunity for somebody like me who has never worked within a business environment before as it is a big company that operates within many different departments and therefore it’s a great place to learn about the business world.

Ensure you have a good knowledge of the AA and their goals and values. The AA also has a very rich history so ensure you have researched into this. Be prepared to explain which skills and knowledge you have that would make you the most suitable candidate for the job.