Software Engineer Apprentice Review

As a digital and technology solutions degree apprentice, I am heavily involved with the development team at an SME, this pushed me down the software engineering pathway, so day-to-day I am working in Java writing code for the web applications that my company provides. With a lot of help from more senior developers and tutoring at university one day a week I feel like I am picking up the knowledge in a practical environment.

Having no prior development skills over the first three years of my course I have become familiar with Java and am comfortable working on many different projects, I have become a lot more comfortable reading existing code and have a understanding what changes I can make to improve the functionality of our products.

The programme has been a fantastic pathway into the career of a software engineer, I have been able to learn from no prior knowledge of engineering to being a useful part of a software engineer, the content is interesting and well suited to learning from the ground up, learning the basics at a good rate to start being able to provide useful input in the workplace.

This degree apprenticeship is run over four years instead of the typical three, which allows a candidate to be better focused on the modules they are studying. With working full time there is a lot of work that needs doing and a lot of sacrifices need to be taken to finish assignments in your own time. T

My employer is absolutely fantastic, from pushing me out of an admin role to realise my potential and recommending me for the programme, to supporting with anything I need to succeed, books, time to spend on assignments, support with any work that I am doing as part of the course. Having struggled with non-work related problems my manager and the HR were supportive and encouraged me to take a break and supported me throughout my year away from university.

MMU is a fantastic University with some great academics guiding the students through this course. They are fully aware that the apprentices are working full time and most try to be as accommodating as possible when it comes to providing assistance outside of the scheduled class times, being available to answer emails in the evenings and at weekends.

Having being in an admin role with zero experience with anything technical my course saw me move through to a data analysis role whilst I started learning the basics of programming before moving into the software engineering team to focus on my pathway of Software Engineering, the efficiency of the tutoring really helped move my career in the direction I wanted it to take and helped improve me at a pace where I became useful in the development process

The company I worked for has recently undergone a merge with Jisc, so whilst at the previous company we would try to arrange five a side football matches, and occasionally work nights out for bowling and drinks, along with summer/christmas parties, due to the global pandemic I am yet to experience what extra-curricular activites Jisc has to offer.

Yes

From my little experience with the company having undergone a merge during a pandemic, Jisc is a company that is committed to helping its members in the Education sector, they are constantly trying to improve the technology based products we provide. But it is also a company that looks after it's employees, they share the same values as the previous company and wants to invest in its employees.

Having not gone through the application for a degree apprentice position, being fortunate enough to have had the company I was currently working at push me towards the programme. I can't say much about the application process, however the company is looking for people who want to be a part of the process to improve the education sector in a big way, and if you feel you could be part of that process, then this could be a place for you.