Developer Review

I am a developer in a database team, so on a daily basis I will be working on tasks to improve the performance and abilities of our database. As an apprentice, this might involve working with others to utilize their expertise on the tasks or working alone to learn new skills.

Before the apprenticeship, I knew no coding languages (barely knew they existed to be honest) and now I am proficient in roughly 4 languages. I have also learnt some social and personal skills from working in an office with people who are vastly more experienced than I. I feel the apprenticeship also helps build confidence.

I have really enjoyed the program thus far. Being able to study alongside working gives a real insight into how some of the skills we might learn at university are applied in the office (and how some are never used) and also maybe learning something in the office and learning about it at a higher level at university.

I would say this program has been fairly well organised. We have one day in university a week with the other 4 days based in the office doing our standard work role. There has been issues with which day of the week we are at university changing which confuses management on when they expect to see us or not.

I feel I receive the right amount of support from my employer. My manager and I talk when I need assistance in any areas and we work out a plan of how that support will take place, whether it be by taking an online course, attempt small related tasks or shadow other employees who excel in that area.

It varies from each course, we have had a few where the lecturers have been excellent and able to help around the clock. However on the whole the support has been fairly average, with few promises from the university carried out. Its worth noting that my company has stopped using this university now.

As the qualification is quite generic so it covers most role types in work, when there is a course which applies to my role, it doesn't go as in depth as I will have already seen in work. However it does give good breadth to some topics that my role might not cover.

yeah there are plenty of extra-curricular activities to get involved in. During the current lock-down situation they have been organizing bi-weekly pub quizzes for all teams to get involved in. Also each individual team has been organizing catch ups, lunches and even online events to keep people going outside of daily work tasks.

Yes

I would easily say its one of the best things that I have ever done. I have found the work side really interesting and a good challenge compared to previous jobs I had, and the University qualification I am working towards is interesting and always producing insights into topics I like from what I have learnt in work.

Just be yourself. There is no point trying to be something your not as the apprenticeship is tailored to what role and team they think will be best suited to you. I tried to follow this advice myself and have enjoyed nearly every minute of it. Time management is fairly important though.