HR Advisor Review

I am an HR Advisor for an academic department within the University of Oxford. My role is to interact with staff at all levels and deliver accurate, appropriate and timely HR support, advice and documentation in line with University policy. My key responsibilities are recruitment campaigns including international recruitment requiring you to be fully conversant with the current UKBA immigration and visa regulations, all aspects of the employee life-cycle, payroll changes through the Core HR system in line with monthly deadlines as well as coordination of the end of fixed-term contract process where applicable.

I learnt a huge amount during my apprenticeship, both from the taught lectures and the on-the-job learning supported by my line manager. The course gave me an all-round understanding of my role, enhancing my employment law knowledge and best practise, as well the use of data to drive change in the business.

I hugely enjoyed my programme. I think there was more than enough support at all stages, it was clear from start to finish what was required of me, and it gave me the skills and knowledge required to progress in my career. I would certainly recommend it to anyone in my position.

My programme was quite well organised - there was often some discrepancy on what modules should be taught when, and didn't always make sense why we would certain modules occurred at certain times, but the course leaders made it possible for us to still learn well and complete each module.

I received a huge amount of support form my employer. I worked slightly longer hours to make up for the time spent at college each week, but this just meant that my on-the-job learning rate didn't drop whilst I was out of office for 20% of the week. My employer gave me regular teaching sessions, which usually tied into the module I was working on at the time.

I received great support from my training provider - they seemed to be available all hours for any queries or concerns and I never felt that I wasn't getting the help I might have needed. Sometimes changing tutors was difficult as there was slight inconsistency with how they wanted things done, but it also gave us the opportunity to learn form different people's experiences.

Very well! I received a promotion shortly after completing my qualification, and I think this was wholly down to the skills and knowledge I had acquired during my course, and the platform that the apprenticeship gave me to really focus on my learning and development. Following the promotion, I still use the things I learned on the course for the job.

Not a huge amount - social activities were limited, even more so due to the pandemic, but my immediate team would organise quite regular events between the small group of us. There wasn't much networking with other teams in the department, but there are termly networking events held at the university.

Yes

My department are very supportive of training and development opportunities, not just by sending you on courses or to complete qualifications, but they also give guidance when completing those courses. I felt that they really wanted me to achieve, and that encouragement really enhanced the learning process for me especially.

If they were applying for a role like mine, I'd encourage them to demonstrate all of their skills and successes, whether they initially think they're relevant or not. If they decided that the role wasn't a good fit after some time, there is scope to move around quite easily within the university.