Health & Safety Apprentice Review

In Health & Safety, every day is different. There are some days when I will be focusing on paperwork and administration, whilst others will be more hands-on with site visits and on-the-job experience. Weekly, I look after the near miss reporting, help with inductions, put together the safety bulletins, give advice relating to H&S and keep checks on our audits and inspections. However, there are a range of other tasks that pop up each day that give me other responsibilities.

In 2020, I completed my NEBOSH National General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety. I have also qualified as a Mental Health First Aider and TRiM Practitioner; and I am now a Fire Marshal and a 3-day First Aider. I have also increased my knowledge and skills within the highways construction industry and within health and safety ten-fold since beginning my course in 2019.

I am really enjoying my programme. I really enjoy the fact that I am working whilst learning. I think that there is nothing better than real-life experience and being in and amongst those who do the job day in, day out. The support you receive from colleagues and management is also top notch.

The programme is extremely well-structured and ties in very well with my day to day job. The subjects that I study within the apprenticeship are very relevant and closely linked with the topic areas i work with within my day role. It is online based, so it is easy to understand and the requirements expected of me are clear.

My employer is very supportive of my apprenticeship programme, and they continually want me to succeed and achieve good marks in my coursework. I do think that my employer could be a bit more understanding of my time limits, as I have to use 20% of my working week to complete apprenticeship work but I usually end up doing this outside of work hours.

The training team at RHG are very supportive and available at any time should I need them. My personal tutor arranges monthly one-to-one sessions to catch up with me and monitor my progress, and these are used to discuss my work path forward and also any concerns that I may have.

The subjects covered in my qualification are highly relevant to my job role, so I would say that this does help me to perform better in my role. During my day to day work, if I have a query relating to health and safety I can refer back to my training material within my qualification for guidance.

Pre-COVID, we did have a few company events (including supply chain) which were available, as well as some social events as well. Since the pandemic has been such a large problem globally, these events have stopped and more is based online or over Teams calls now. I personally prefer the face to face events, so I am hoping these will resume once the pandemic has eased.

Yes

Kier Group has a great Early Careers programme, whether that is as an apprentice or a graduate, and offers many different courses and programmes to suit different needs. They are a fair and inclusive employer, and are keen to get more female staff working in the construction industry, which is great. They are supportive and are always wanting their staff to be the best they can be.

Go for it! An apprenticeship with Kier Group is a fun, practical and exciting way to learn your trade. It is a great way to learn whilst getting real on-the-job experience, and you can learn so much from those around you. Employers often prefer people who have more experience too, so it may even put you in good stead for career opportunities in the future!