Higher Business Apprentice Review

I am currently working in Sourcing Commodities. This role encapsulates reviewing and negotiating of contracts and raw material prices that we hold with existing customers whilst also working with internal functions to identify cost saving exercises such as identifying new customers for parts, updating old part drawings or looking at the feasibility of sourcing these products in house.

This role has helped me with many soft skills and job specific skills such as chairing of meetings. Time management, Communication, being flexible, working in a range of different environments and knowing how to react to certain situations as well as job specific skills such as system education and improving/enhancing my ability within excel

I really enjoy the programme I am currently on. It has given me a wide range of different challenges allowing me to enhance a number of skill sets and get a wider understanding of the business overall whilst also allowing me to apply academic learnings in a live business environment.

We have encountered some issues with regards to the organization and structure of this programme, however overall the programme is ran really well. Consistency has improved since I joined and it shows as the later years have been more cohesive with standard practice whereas we have encountered some challenges. However these challenges have helped us grow as individuals so they aren't exactly negatives just learning experiences.

We receive a lot of support on this programme. It fluctuates dependent on the role you are in with regards to how the programme is setup itself, however overall it is really well controlled and we get multiple levels of support from both direct managers and indirect managers (role specific) including further support from leadership teams and older cohorts or apprentices whom have passed through the programme already.

This program provides excellent close support for us as individuals. This is evident through the range of different training provides, ranging from university days tailored towards our module and our experiences within our companies industry, to scheduled sessions with the library and IT experts within Coventry to support with extra curricular activities such as 'Critical Writing' workouts and 'Referencing Guidelines' where they help us grow in specific aspects that will help us develop our overall report writing abilities. Furthermore they also hold quarterly reviews and are very responsive to 1-1 sessions as well to discuss any other issues/make sure we are having a positive Working/University balance.

I have been able to apply many of the modules that we have been taught at university directly to my day job. One of my previous rotations I was working a project and as part of the module we learnt about useful steps and ideas to help with this which led to me creating and utilizing a Project Gant chart which really helped me map out each step of the project and put some realistic and achievable goals towards the project.

As part of the programme we have a programme which is called the 'enrichment programme' this allows us as apprentices to work with our direct manager and the university to map out some extra curricular activities that benefit both business, us as individuals and work towards university criteria such as the CMI aspect of the degree. This has helped bring different year groups together but also enhanced both the culture of the programme internally and improved the companies image locally as well.

Yes

GE Aviation are a fantastic company to work for. This programme isn't the only one they offer and each and every programme has lots of opportunities. Not only do they offer great learner/worker courses to engage on, the culture of the company as a whole is extremely positive. It is evident that we are valued as employees and for most cases they will do what they can to support us and individuals. I would highly recommend GE Aviation to anyone as a company to work at.

I would read through the different programme and job offers, make sure you do some research on the industry and also GE as a whole as there are a wide range of other branches to go down as well. My biggest tip would be to ask around to see if you know of anyone who has worked there to be able to get a first hand experience of what to expect. Make sure the role/programme you apply for is something you want to do, or something that will provide you with a lot of opportunity to grow within the business.