Risk/Compliance Apprentice Review

Each apprentice is assigned to a team in risk/compliance, where they will work with the team whilst attending classes and completing assignments for the apprenticeship. Each apprentice has one study day per week. During my first rotation I started by being introduced to everyone and shadowing the team to better understand what they do on a day to day basis. After this I began working on tasks for the team and handling weekly team meetings by taking the minutes (so that I got used to terms and language used in the team.)

I have learnt many new skills as part of the apprenticeship. I was not used to an office working environment so everything was new to me. My team made me feel very comfortable, and the program set out what was expected of me in the office environment. I have improved on my previous excel skills, along with my speaking/presenting and overall confidence.

I greatly enjoy the programme. I feel included and my opinion is always valued, I have regular informal chats with colleagues where we can vent and avoid business chat. As there are other apprentices working alongside of me going through the same thing, this makes it easy for us to speak out about anything we are unsure or unhappy about.

The programme is very well organised, from the introductory briefing discussing more about what the programme would entail, to getting everything set up for working. My first team rotation was great and I had plenty of work to do, however I have heard from other apprentices that they had little to do or that managers had little contact with them. Also we were told on top of the original programme, we would be doing a cambridge course. We were then told this was not a thing, then we found out a week before said course started that it was actually happening.

I have had plenty of support from Barclays during the apprenticeship. Both managers from my first and second team rotations have been very helpful and understanding, and I have gotten to know them on a personal level. We are able to reach out to the heads of the apprenticeship with any question we may have and they are quick to respond. We have regular catch up calls with them too. For the assignments, we worked with the Internation Compliance Association and they were very helpful with any queries we had about the assignments.

As previously mentioned, we receievd a lot of support from the Internation Compliance Association (ICA) who were organizing the assignments. The main issue I and a lot of the apprentices had was that the feedback for our assignments was very minimal. We had no breakdown of where marks were coming from or where they were lost. We had two or three vague sentences of personal feedback, the majority of feedback was generalized feedback for everyone that was just copied onto everyone's results. I.E. - "For this assignment It was noted that some candidates used the subject of dinner but failed to further discuss brocolli" This would be your main bulk of commentary on your results even if you did not make that mistake or even discuss "dinner"

The qualification itself is great and the classes have been very useful. I had no prior Risk/Governance/Compliance knowledge and now I know more of where these teams fit in to many companys, not even just financial businesses. It also let me understand why the teams I am working in do what they do. The ICA also provide access to many useful articles and webinars (alongside the classes).

There are plenty of initiatives to get involved in. When I was briefly in office (pre covid) there were various events such as charity events (kiltwalk, children in need etc..) to get involved in, along with "meet the team" events which give you insight into other areas of Barclays you may be interested in. As we have been working from home the last year, a lot of initiatives have been to do team walks for charity, ensure you do not stop networking even when working from home and events focussing on wellbeing and mental health.

Yes

The apprenticeship has allowed me to learn many new skills and meet so many new amazing people, all whilst attaining a qualification and learning about the area of compliance and that is only the first year. There are also many benefits of working here such as gym discounts and health checkups which is great.

When completing interviews/application for Barclays, make sure to tie in your personal abilities and skills with Barclays values (RISES) as the assessors like to see or hear this. Make sure to gain knowledge of any charity events or external activities Barclays is involved in and express interest. The final group interview can be intimidating, however looking back it was nice and relaxed, dont let it get to you, you will do great!