Project Management Apprentice Review

My day to day role is as a project controller, looking after projects scaling from large engine programmes to owning plans and delivery of property and office spaces. This changes every six months due to our programme having different placement every six months which amounts to 7/8 different placements during the 4 years.

During my time with the company, I have learnt a plethora of new skills, which can include, stakeholder management and the importance of communications. Schedule and Risk management which are two of the most important project management skills as they affect all projects whether they are larger projects or smaller ones.

I enjoy my programme very much, as a more hands on learner I have found that the balance between the academic side of the programme and the real world experience. I have had the chance to experience real responsibility and not just what someone may think the role of an apprentice would be.

From my experience, my programme has been well organised. As the first of its kind within the company, there was of course a learning curve to the programme which created quality relationships between the cohort and the management which has resulted in a good environment for learning and trust between us.

During my time on the placement, my employer has always offered support where it is needed giving us catch-up and review meetings where we can voice any problems and offer us any support that we need. Any placement managers have also offered a great deal of support whenever it may be needed.

Over the last 3 years, I have had weekly meetings with my training provider and further reviews at determined intervals to look at my progress and then provide any support that I may need. Overall, they have given us a lot of support and have made the programme much easier than it might be without it.

As my role is in project management, it has helped a lot to have the theoretical understanding of why we must go through certain processes within my job role as well as having the understanding and ability to talk to other who may not have that understand such as people in a more engineering focus who may not have been exposed to project management.

Within the company, there is a social network of many different sporting clubs, ranging from running to rugby and everything in between which from experience have been very welcoming and a joy to work with. There are also lunch and learns in place that allow people from different career paths to meet and maybe have a guest speaker to show us something different.

Yes

This company has been the panicle of quality since its formation and continues to be so. It being such a large and influential organisation gives its employees to pull on a wide range of experiences helping them to achieve what they aspire to get out of their careers resulting in a lovely working environment.

When I was applying for my job, I had little to no experience in the role that I was applying for coming from an engineering background looking at the project management scheme. I made sure to just be myself and try not to stress about being the "perfect person" as the company wants to see what type of person you actually are.