Catchment Lead Review

My role as a networks catchment lead involves owning a catchment area and managing the sewerage network within that area in terms of operation and maintenance. This is mainly from a logistical point of view working with contractors and many other stakeholders such as the environment agency and local councils.

Yes along the apprenticeship i have developed communication skills greatly due to being a in a real world environment and the fact my role involves a lot of communication with contractors and stakeholders has also boosted my confidence in dealing with and owning situations which can be quite daunting at times.

The programme has been overall a very good experience, however there have been some slight issues such as not having an assesor for the NVQ for for the first 12-18 months. But overall the experience has been very good and the support and benefits from the company have been excellent.

Overall Severn Trent seem to have a very well structured apprenticeship / graduate programme, the only negative point i experienced was the fact our role was new to the apprenticeship programme and therefore some elements were unknown and therefore some queries and questions werent able to be answered and was challenging to get information specific to this role. However in terms of the actual programme it is very well structured and organised.

There is a lot of support available whenever and wherever needed, the new talent team within HR are always at hand making sure all of the apprenticeships and graduates are okay and not overwhelmed, as well as closer support from managers who are very supportive and encouraging in quarterly review meetings.

Make UK is the training provider but the actual qualification was at City of Wolverhampton College, some of the apprentices were in house at Make UK but the qualification some of us did had to be done outside. At the college there was good support from the tutors where needed, but the criteria wasn't always very clear and there was an issue with not having tutors for periods of time.

The qualification of Construction and the Built Environment HNC is very relevant to the engineering department who design and build new assets, it is slightly less relevant to my role but still provides a better understanding of how large civils activities take place and the work involved. Mainly the more managerial activities such as health and safety.

Yes, there are a lot of different after work activities which employees can get involved in, some recent ones during lockdown being bingo and comedy evenings. There have been sporting activities for charity such as football matches as well as more social activities being arranged just for apprentices and graduates.

Yes

From my experience so far it seems a very good company to work for who provide a lot of good benefits and care about their employees. The pay is very good on the apprenticeship programme in my opinion with the yearly increases being generous and then progressing into a full role being very achievable from the development on the programme.

Do your research on the company and identify a department you are interesting in whilst looking at vacancies, carry out research specific to the assets owned by those departments and get an understanding of what they are and how they work before any interview or assessment centre so you are well prepared.