Corporate & Commercial Banking Apprentice Review

I am a corporate & commercial banking apprentice at Santander which is a three year programme. This involves a series of rotations in different areas across the bank. My current role involves managing projects and liaising with the sales team to help them complete tasks for customers. This is good as it has enabled me to increase my project management and presentation skills.

I have learnt how to improve my project management and presentation skills. This is through supporting and also managing projects for the team. I have also developed on my PowerPoint and excel skills which were very basic before I started in the team. This has allowed me to boost my confidence when completing tasks for colleagues.

I do enjoy my programme with many networking initiatives being organised by HR to meet new graduates/apprentices. This creates a very social atmosphere to meet new colleagues. The rotations are also good as they allow you to gain a full perspective of the banking industry and increase your knowledge to take into a permanent position.

The programme is very well structured for our rotations so that we can gain experience from the core areas of banking e.g. front office, operations and credit risk. This enables us to become well rounded banking employees. The only negative is I think there needs to be more structure of what will be completed in the rotation itself.

I receive a lot of support from Santander e.g. office equipment sent to us to work from home during the pandemic, recommendations for future rotations and colleagues who can help us with this. There is also lots of networking and training initiatives in order to help me develop in the bank.

I receive support from my provider in terms of my coach always willing to answer questions I have and help with feedback for my assignments. He also helps with recommending me some topics I could include in my assignment to help me meet the standard. This allows me to understand where I need to improve so I can gain my qualifications.

I feel that some of the qualifications and training webinars helps me to have higher levels of knowledge for my role to perform better. However the webinars and qualifications could be better tailored to roles within the bank so that it is easier to transfer these skills across into different roles.

Yes when we was in the office there was some football and social events which I attended and these were good. Whilst working from home there has been lots of quizzes and social events which has enabled us to meet new graduates/apprentices and also other colleagues from around the bank.

Yes

It has a very good culture with no question is a stupid one which allows new joiners like myself to feel comfortable in speaking up and contributing even when our knowledge may be lower than experienced colleagues. It also has a great social atmosphere which allows us to meet new colleagues and enjoy coming to work.

I would say to try and not get too nervous in the application process and to take each stage as it comes. There was lots of time given to us to prepare for each stage so it is good to utilise this time as best as you can. Also make sure to take lots of notes to remember key details during each stage.