Network Engineer Review

My role as a Network engineering apprentice involves ensuring that the network is built securely, as a first year apprentice my day to day work mostly involves meeting with my team in order to learn how to correctly complete tasks, as well as coordinating with other teams to help integrate services.

In my day to day tasks I have mostly been developing my teamwork and communication skills in order to help effectively coordinate my project, however I have also been developing my networking knowledge through internal and external resources that Vodafone provides. Such as Vodafone university and LinkedIn learning. University work has helped me develop an understanding of databases as well as networking skills including CCNA qualifications

I rate the program I'm in highly, all of my colleagues are very helpful and friendly, even if they are busy they still get back to me as soon as, my apprentice manager is always available to help and is providing interesting things within the company to get involved in. The program provider always sets tasks that are clear and are on hand to give advice with an assignment

As stated previously the program provider always sets tasks that are clear and are on hand to give advice with an assignment, the roadmap of the courses we will be completing were given from the get go so you know exactly what to prepare for. The was in which you can achieve the highest grade possible are always on the assignment.

Support is always available from work, the first person you interact with will likely be the apprentice manager who is a point of contact throughout your apprenticeship to provide advice and help if felt you had a question that you couldn't ask your team. However I've rarely felt that I couldn't speak to my line manager or teammates if I had any issues

The provider has provided help whenever I reached out for help with an assignment and provided clear advice, feedback is always clear and helpful and if you want to request even more feedback or even to go back over an assignment they are also more than wiling to help. And as I stated previously the steps that you need to take in order to reach the highest grade available is provided with the assignment

My first course / qualification that the trainer provided has helped immensely with the project that I am currently undertaking, the first course that the the provider taught was for the CCNA qualification which is directly tied to networking. The following courses have given me an understanding of what to expect as I develop in my role and what others in Vodafone do, which should help me work more effectively with others

There is a wide range of communities that Vodafone helps to organise, unfortunately I cant speak for all activities available as due to covid its more difficult / not possible to organise these. However some nice social activites have taken place over teams that have helped people socilase. In addition in the future a group apprentice retreat is taking place.

Yes

Vodafone and Blackpool and the Flyde college are really helpful and provide some really useful tools that allow you to learn effectively, you can use your time quite flexibly between work and uni which makes it a great environment to teach yourself new skills or to shadow and learn from your colleagues, whilst gaining on the job experience.

Definitely reach out and connect with both people within and outside your team, chat to other apprentices to look at how to make the most of your apprenticeship, definitely keep on top of your work but remember that you are there to learn so set yourself time every day to study, complete uni work, and use the resources that the provider and Vodafone have.