Network Engineering Apprentice Review

On a day-to-day basis, I usually either am doing tasks given to me by members of the team, whether that is to help them out with some work, or to help me learn and develop my skills. When I am not focusing on that, I am working on assignments given to me by the training provider. By doing this, it allows me to balance my time between doing tasks giving to me by my team, and learning. I also have a few calls a week which allow me to understand what goes on in the team every week.

I have learnt a lot about how the business works as a whole, and also how different devices such as switches and routers work. As part of my learning, I have spent time using packet tracer to understand how to configure these devices so that end devices can communicate with each other. I have also been working towards gaining Cisco qualifications and have received support from members of the team when I need help with anything, whether that be questions about a task or questions about my learning.

I am really enjoying the apprenticeship program with Vodafone. Everyone treats me as a member of the team whilst also being aware that I am still learning, so they take the time to explain things to me in order for me to learn. Any information about the apprenticeship are well communicated to us by the apprentice team and they are there to help us with any questions or issues we have. The college that we learn with are well organised and make things clear for us. They are also available to ask questions about our courses.

There are 2 modules running per term and each term lasts for 12 weeks. It can become a lot of work trying to balance work and college work, but so far I have not had any problems. Usually, you only work on 1 assignment per module at a time. There are online learning sessions every few weeks and then tasks set in the weeks where there isn't a session.

I receive a lot of support from my team and my manager. My team are always happy to talk me through things that I am unsure about. My manager allows for my main focus to be my college work, but with the expectation that when I am given work to do by a member of the team, that the work takes priority, however we are able to say that we have too much college work to do. My manager is very flexible with how I spend my time.

The training provider link the CCNA qualifications into some of the modules we do, and give us access to learning materials to Cisco NetAcademy, which is Ciscos online training website. There is a lot of material on there as well as a practice exams. There are also other courses you can take that the college offer, that are separate to the apprenticeship

I am learning a lot of valuable skills, especially with the more networking focused modules. As the apprenticeship works towards being able to get the CCNA qualification, it gives me the experience to show that I can understand the basics of networks and it will allow me to get other jobs in the industry in the future.

There are often social events that happen. Some of these are online events but teams often have a meet-up at sometime during the year. This is good as an apprentice because you get to know your team better, and meet some your team for the first time as they may work in different office locations or from home.

Yes

It's a really good company to work for because they really look after you as an apprentice and want to give you the best opportunity to begin a career. It is also a well known company which looks good on a CV. There are also a lot of different benefits to working for Vodafone such as discounts on various sites or shops.

When I applied, I sent my CV, and then the next step was an online interview that you record yourself and answer questions that come up on the screen. The next stage is an assessment day where I did a few different tasks such as a group exercise, presented a presentation on a given topic, and then an interview. The best way to approach is to prepare for it a few days before, and that everyone will be nervous.