Apprentice software developer Review

As an apprentice software developer I spent the first 5 weeks in London with the training provider multiverse. To start with we were taught the basics of programming at a fast pace. After the training I returned to the Leeds office where me and 3 other Sky apprentices would do a training project, building some software and releasing it internally to get experience of developing software. After this in about March 2020 we all split up and went into production teams, in the teams we were expected to pair and shadow but often this was just for a break in period and then the team supported me in starting to develop code for production. To get my qualification I had to pass two exams, the first around software development methodologies and the second was around HTML and JavaScript to prove a fundamental knowlage of programming. Whist working in a production team I was expected to keep a portfolio of all the work I did and then I would have an interview from an assessor from BCS where I'd explain all that I've achieved.

The main sell of an apprenticeship for me is the on the job training, being able to work with a production team has taught me lots about the obvious skills like programming but it's also the skills you can't learn in from a book.

Like I mentioned above being able learn on the job provides an enormous amount of space to learn things at a rapid pace. With the learning at Multiverse, It was great to spend time with developers at the same level and face all the challenges together.

Sky has been providing apprenticeships for a long time now so most of the problems are ironed out. There is a clear pathway, from starting the apprenticeship to working in a production team, with little pressure and lots of support. Multiverse is now the first training provider that Sky has settled on, apprenticeship training is a new and upcoming space, everything is not yet ironed out. That said I feel from my experience that Multiverse were great.

Sky provide lots of resources in terms of the amount of developers that are available to help and also the amount of support tools like LinkedIn learning or O'reiley.

Our training provider was always accessible by slack if not an email making it easy to get any question answered. The preparations for the exams/interviews was good but it needs to be remembered that only you can put the hard work in and actually learn something.

I've always seen the qualification as a side note the on the job training but it does show all the effort that I've put into my apprenticeship, certainly helping me in my overall career.

As a cohort we went for a few social activities. Multiverse has put on lots of events with guest speakers and had a Q&A where new apprentices could ask questions to apprentices who've recently passed

Yes

The resources available are great with on the job training, any other option doesn't even come close.

Apprentices are expected to know a whole lot about programming, the best programmer doesn't get hired, Sky can teach you all you need to know about programming. It's all about having the right foundation that sky can build on.