Chemistry Apprentice, Oncology R&D Review

My day to day role involves working on multiple projects within the computational chemistry team. This includes helping to develop streamlined workflows, increasing automation, working with many different computational tools as well as analysis of new/current tools. These projects involve lots of communication with colleagues in my department as well as different areas of the business. I also communicate with external experts to help with development projects.

I have learnt many new skills around the use of many computational chemistry tools as well as increasing my understanding of chemistry/ computational chemistry basics and encouraging me to read more around the subject. I have also developed skills such as organisation, communication as well as presentation skills.

Very much enjoying my programme - my apprenticeship includes rotations across many teams within the chemistry department so I have been able to learn and experience a lot as well as build up really good networks/ working relationships across the department.

My programme is reasonably well organised, but having the rotations within my apprenticeship has meant it has also had to be quite flexible to be able to fit business needs as well as my apprenticeship plan. The study/ education provider is much less organised, although the study side provided by my employer as well as support for this is excellent.

I receive a very good amount of support from my employer - I have a very supportive and helpful line manager, as well as many mentors for the projects I work on. The apprentice group including the apprenticeship programme coordinators as well as other apprentices at work is a very big community and so creates a great support network.

The support from the training provider is limited. I have been lucky enough to not require much support from this side of things, but from my experience it could be improved. I do however enjoy the studying and find the self-directed online learning works well for me.

I would not say my qualification helps me a great deal in performing my role better. It of course helps me understand the basics of chemistry which I use in my role as well as scientific writing and formatting which again is helpful. However the majority of my learning and experiences are gained in the workplace and from the help of college agues/ internal learning material. I definitely think the on-the-job learning is invaluable compared to the degree side of the learning.

There are many extra activities to get involved with at work, including both work based e.g literature groups as well as networking activities and events and changes to collaborate. There are also lots of social events, for example following the networking sessions/ presentations as well as celebrations at colleague milestones e.g long service etc. There are many social activities within the apprentice community as well as the 'early talent' community that includes graduates, interns and postdocs.

Yes

I would definitely recommend AZ to a friend. I think they are a brilliant company to work for and really provide great support, help, career guidance as well as a great work community for apprentices.

Do your research before hand - really understand what AZ do and if you are interested in working for them. Also remember the apprenticeship will be hard, but will 100% be worth it and you will have an amazing time throughout. Finally just go for it!