Commercial Higher Level Apprentice Review

My day-to-day operational role involves supporting the commercial teams with activities such as co-ordinating and attending internal and external meetings - including minute taking; managing trackers and processes; reviewing contractual information; managing and working on my commercial competency framework; storing key correspondence; working on projects and attending training to aid learning and development.

I would say I have learned a host of new skills in my role on this apprenticeship with Babcock, these include but are not limited to: How to arrange and co-ordinate meetings with internal and external stakeholders virtually; How to digest and read commercial contracts; Learnt about management and leadership skills through the completion of the CMI Level 5 Diploma in Management and Leadership. In terms of existing skills I have become more competent on Microsoft Excel through external training I have completed; have become more confident and have become better at time management and managing workload and priorities

I enjoy the Commercial Higher Level Apprenticeship with Babcock as I am able to work with many different stakeholders across the commercial function due to being able to move around to different placements. The teams I work with all work in different ways and you are able to learn what works best for them in terms of how you integrate yourself into the team and manage expectations. The working has been challenging to an extent due to COVID and the lack of face-to-face interaction this has created, which has had an effect on our ability to learn and get the best possible learning experience from our apprenticeship. It meets my expectations and positively I have been able to complete a management and leadership course, which will help in my future career. I do enjoy the role and the level of exposure and responsibility I have in the teams that I join. The company culture is changing for the better and I can see a real bright future in terms of the direction it is moving in.

My programme from a Babcock perspective is organised well and has a decent structure, especially the training and support I get from my mentor, but I cannot say the same from placement-to-placement as my line manager's have been very different in their approaches to training and support. My first placement I could not fault them as they were fantastic, but my second placement wasn't great as I felt very much in my own silo and not really part of the team as it all felt quite disconnected. But on the whole, my programme has been organised well, but could perhaps be structured slightly better in terms of more structured training for achieving commercial competencies for example in readiness for our first role of responsibility post apprenticeship.

As previously mentioned, I have had varying experiences in my placements when it comes to support from line managers. First line manager was fantastic and was always able to make time for me to help support and train me in my role. Whereas, in my second placement this wasn't as structured and support lacked partly due to the speed in which the programme was moving. In order to seek support and guidance it was always me having to arrange it and use my initiative, but felt very much like I was in a silo and somewhat disconnected at times. On the other hand, my mentor has been fantastic. We have monthly catch up calls and they always provide me with guidance and support when I need it with a real desire to ensure that I learn and develop throughout the apprenticeship in the best way possible.

City College as our training provider was effectively the first placement in my role to some extent as due to COVID our learning programme was accelerated and condensed into 8 weeks. During this time, they were very supportive and the learning experience was largely positive. There was minimal contact from the training provider when it came to the apprenticeship tasks we then had to complete to get to endpoint assessment following the 8-week course work-based training, but for me this wasn't a problem as I was able to step through the tasks reasonably well and reached out to my assessor when needed and they were always prompt with getting back to me and answering questions. The only critique I really have of the training provider is the lack of check-ins and progress reviews we had, but on the whole I received all the support I needed from the training provider.

The Management and Leadership qualification has helped me to perform better in terms of increased confidence, better time management and managing workload. But I can't say all the theory I have learnt has been put into practice as I am not a manager or a leader in the organisation, so a fair amount of the theory doesn't apply to me so much in my current role. However, could become more prevalent as I progress in the company. I felt the course allowed me to know more about my industry at a more basic level, but at times it was challenging to apply working examples of demonstrating management and leadership because of the way in which we completed the coursework in the condensed 8-week period. Therefore a lot of the examples that were given during the 8 weeks of coursework were largely hypothetical as we had not yet had any experience in placements in Babcock at this point. But on the whole, I feel the course with the training provider provided a springboard for me to learn and develop at Babcock when I started my work-based placements.

I am aware of the internal sport and social lottery, which I am yet to sign up to. However, in terms extra-curricular activities that are work-related I have no idea what I can get involved in as I am not part of any communications that come out about this. I enjoy playing football for example, so if Babcock had a group who play 5-a-side that would be great and would allow me to network with other stakeholders. In terms of my own extra-curricular activities, I play football, running and do home workouts and am currently considering joining a gym.

Yes

Babcock is a great organisation to work for in terms of learning and development and the working culture is shifting for the better with a real emphasis on ensuring we are working as 'One Babcock', so is moving towards being a more inclusive, aligned and transparent company with more collaboration amongst teams rather than being in silos - so it is an exciting time to join the organisation. There are lots of training opportunities too that can aid progress and future promotions in the organisation.

Really pay close attention to the job specification when applying for the role and ensure you cover as much as possible to tailor your application to what Babcock is looking for with emphasis on how your prior experiences/skills. In the interviews be confident and brave and ensure you do your research into the company prior to show you know your stuff. When onboarding ensure you leave no stone unturned and you have all the information and resource/equipment you need to hit the ground running. The experience and opportunities you will gain will be invaluable, so ensure you use your initiative and ask lot of questions about the opportunities and experience you can gain by joining Babcock.