Change Delivery Leader Review

I am a project manager working within our Wealth value stream at HSBC. There are a number of aspects to my role, including managing the project plan, managing risks, issues, dependencies etc., managing finances, liaising with third parties. We are working agile, and so I also act as scrum master managing our scrum board on Jira.

Before I started the apprenticeship, I was a 'change an optimisation manager', and wasn't too familiar with the skills required for managing a full project. The apprenticeship helped me develop key skills such as risk management, scheduling, quality management, improving on communication and collaboration etc., which helped me secure my role as project manager.

I thoroughly enjoyed my apprenticeship programme. I genuinely learnt a huge amount relating to project management, and the way it was structured suited my learning style. There were a number of day courses with other people on the programme which was a great way to learn interactively, but also online learning that I could complete at my own pace.

I think the structure of the programme was well suited to my learning needs given there were a number of different elements to the actual output of the qualification. The one thing that all the people on my course had commented on however, was the fact there was some discrepancies between what we learnt online, what was in the APM book, and what was taught in the day courses.

I was given 20% of my time at work to focus on my studying, which meant one day every week I was able to study or attend the day courses. My line manager was fully supportive and would ask in my 121s how I was getting on, showing a genuine interest in my development.

Kaplan were very supportive throughout the training programme - I was able to hold a number of individual calls with one of the tutors who led the day course, who helped guide me towards what was needed for the exam and the portfolio. He was also able to provide feedback on the portfolio which helped me improve it.

100% the qualification helped me perform better in my role. I have used a huge amount of the knowledge that I learnt throughout the programme in my current role and it was a big help in securing my promotion to a Project Manager. I've been developing my skills throughout and regularly back to the qualification when I'm unsure of certain things.

Currently with the pandemic, there are not really any social activities happening with our team. However we do have occasional zoom calls for quizzes and other events to try and keep everyone socially engaged outside of work hours. Prior to COVID, we had a number of events such as football tournaments within the team.

Yes

I feel that HSBC offers a great deal of job security, and I also think that they really focus on making sure employees are treated well. They are very flexible (allowing people to work from home where possible, even prior to COVID), and there are a number of different opportunities within the bank if you wanted to change roles.

Show a lot of enthusiasm and passion during interviews. Talk about the skills that you've learnt in previous roles that you could bring across, and how you would do so. Do your research on the role you're applying for to show you are genuinely interested in the job.