Apprentice Review

The role I have been given is in Hosting Solutions, which means I am working with the cloud. Currently as I am only a few months in to the apprenticeship this involves a lot of shadowing experienced members of my team via Zoom as well as personal learning in to what my team's role is within the bank.

I came in to the role with no experience in networking and so I have learned a lot so far. There is lots of material on the company intranet to assist in personal learning and every colleague has been so helpful by reaching out and offering to let me shadow the work they do as BAU or otherwise.

The program is great and is so far the best place I have worked. Everyone is so kind and friendly and I have not once felt like I've been left out in the cold. Any time I need anything or anyone there is always somebody I can contact. There is a huge focus on inclusion and diversity, as well as personal health and wellbeing which is great.

There is a good structure to the program. Personally I'd have liked it to take off a little quicker however after asking other apprentices on other courses it seems a little wait at the start is normal. There is lots of content to help us through our coursework, and plenty of additional learning we can take on ourselves.

The employer supports us a lot through every step of the apprenticeship. If I ever need any additional time away from work to focus on my apprenticeship, my manager is always extremely understanding and accommodates for that. In addition to this, NatWest has an apprenticeship/early careers team who have been amazing in putting together a whole bunch of events to bring apprentices together to build our network and to give us the tools we need to progress.

We have a handler who deals with us personally should we have any questions about our qualifications or the coursework towards them. We receive meetings for every bit of coursework we have to fill out, and we have a way to directly contact who we need when we need. As well as this, there is a lot of additional resources we have been given access to which enhances our learning.

As I came in to the role with little to no experience of what I will be doing, I feel that the qualification is helping me make all the right steps in the right directions. There has never been anything I haven't been able to use or apply to my current role.

While at the moment it is hard to get extra-curricular activities arranged, there has been a whole range of workshops we have been able to attend. The apprenticeship council has also put together a virtual coffee meeting monthly to help develop our network and to help us socialise. There is also a group dedicated to helping our professional networking skills and even puts us in to contact with people that can help further our goals.

Yes

It has by far been the best employer I have had to date. Although I have worked here a short time, everybody has been super friendly and has made the effort to reach out to me even if I find networking a little difficult. There is a huge focus on being customer driven which is a value I really agree with. There is also a huge focus on personal wellbeing which I find extremely important, especially right now.

When applying for NatWest it's important to learn about the company and its values. You can find a lot of information about it on the website by doing a little research. When demonstrating what capabilities you have really focus on how it applies to NatWest's vision and how you can fit in to that vision.