Network Engineering Apprentice Review

On a day-to-day basis, my role can involve multiple tasks. Some tasks may be relevant to my apprenticeship, such as a training course, or writing an assignment based on my current module. Other tasks are relevant to my team, such as learning about different networks and projects that my team works on. Some tasks are more of an admin task, such as re-organising my teams shared file storage system.

I have learnt many new skills whilst being an apprentice. I am now much more confident presenting documents to groups of people. I also feel that I am able to work better in a team than I was able to before. I have also developed my technical skills due to being on the network engineer pathway on my apprenticeship.

I am really enjoying my apprenticeship programme, as it gives me an opportunity to learn. I am on a degree level apprenticeship, so at the end of the apprenticeship, I will get a degree. I work in a really good team, and others in the team are always willing to help if I need any help.

My programme is well structured. I usually would have two training courses in a classroom per module. Each module is 10 weeks, and each training course is across 2 days. There is also weekly content to read and watch, with weekly quizzes to check the knowledge. Currently, due to lockdown, I have a three hour webex session every week instead of going to a classroom.

I receive a lot of support from my employer. My manager is fully supportive of my apprenticeship, and is always willing to put me in contact with people to help with my course. He is also willing to read through any assignments that I write, and he gives any feedback on it. There is also a dedicated person that I can contact about any issues with the training provider.

Majority of the time, the training provider does provide enough support relating to my course, however sometimes, some information isn't made clear to us. This often leads to having to email them to ask why there hasn't been any communication to us. For example, I was due to take an exam which was postponed due to the lockdown. We received notice of this, but did not receive notice of a change in format of the exam. I had to ask about the format, and was only told a couple of days before the exam.

Through my courses that I do with the training provider, I am able to perform better in my job role as I have a greater knowledge of things that are relevant to my job. For example, my current module is about switches and routers, and how to configure them. This is highly relevant to my job, and allows me to understand what I need to do.

There are some extra-curricular activities that do take place, however I don't take part in any. There is a group that play football during their lunch break which people are able to join. There is also events around Christmas such as a Christmas market that we are able to look around.

Yes

I would recommend Vodafone to a friend because it is a really enjoyable place to work. There are lots of benefits that you are able to take advantage of, even as an apprentice. Apprentices are treated the same as any other person who works there, despite having much less experience. There is always support with anything that you need. Currently, we are able to get some items that allow us to work from home more comfortably, such as chairs.

My advice would be to prepare well for any interview that you may have. There are multiple stages to it, but if you are prepared for each stage, it becomes much easier. Another bit of advice would be to just to apply. Even if you only get an interview, and don't get any further in the application process, it is still interview experience. Interview experience is really useful because the more comfortable you are in an interview, the easier it gets.