Enterprise Graduate Review

Currently I work in the Procurement Team, where I am split between two broad areas of logistics and property. Within these areas I spend most of my time carrying out analysis of our suppliers, identifying trends in our spending history and presenting my team with opportunities to cut costs and save M&S money

I have learned a whole plethora of new skills, particularly related to data analysis. In my role, I have been able to apply all the new excel and Power BI skills I have learned on my Data Technician Level 3 apprenticeship when analyzing how M&S spends money on categories such as store builders and architects to name a few. I have also developed my ability to tell a story with data, including how to best present data to make it meaningful to my team and what I'm trying to convey.

So far I have thoroughly enjoyed my Data Technician Apprenticeship as it has allowed me to learn new skills to instantly improve and enhance my ability to do my role at a higher level. The new analytical and technical skills I have gained have noticeably improved my capabilities, and make it more enjoyable for me as I can perform these tasks with greater ease and speed.

The program is well structured, however the pacing can be a bit variable. Initially the program started off slow with little to learn, however it has now picked up to require a lot of work. Some improvement could be made to this, however overall I'd say the course is structured well.

I receive great support from my employer, with my team all fully aware and engaged in my learning. They fully respect the time commitments I must give to this program, and I've never been challenged for prioritizing my course over my day role when appropriate. Overall they have been incredibly supportive.

My training provider is always available to answer my questions via email, and the communication from Babington overall is great. Very responsive, helpful and understanding of other commitments too. Regular review meetings also give the course structure and they help make sure I'm still on-track to succeed on this course.

This qualification and the skills I am learning through it has already made a huge improvement to my performance in my role. As I am now able to use more complex and advanced features of tools such as Excel and Power BI, I have been able to pull out insights that I would never have been able to before.

Yes; Marks and Spencer is good at providing social events, such as team activities after work and online quizzes. This has dropped a bit due to covid restrictions, however recently I participated in a big group cooking call that was really fun. Once we are back in the office I would like to see more sports activities on offer.

Yes

M&S is a fantastic business with a huge amount of interesting business areas, activities, iconic products and more. Although it is undergoing a huge amount of change to modernize and combat the weakening high street, this is an exciting time to work at M&S, and for this reason I would encourage anyone to come work for M&S.

Be yourself, but most importantly know the business. M&S is a very public brand and everyone has an opinion on it; make sure you do your research before the interview, look at the financial report, understand where the company is going and be prepared to give your opinions on how you would run it differently.