Clinical Trial Specialist Apprentice Review

I work in clinical operations, in a team of clinical study administrators. I monitor and work on the admin of clinical trials. I also attend site visits with my site monitors, to my studies hospitals to monitor the patients and the site's documents. I am on a year's secondment into this team, before returning to my post in global study management later this year.

I have developed many new skills, especially as i began this apprenticeship straight out of school. I have learnt a lot of in depth knowledge about clinical trials, improved my time management and organisation, learnt how to balance a full time job and a degree at the same time, and how to act in a workplace.

I enjoy my programme as it has offered many new opportunities for me, allowed me to study a fully funded degree, and to experience the start of my career. The work is really interesting and ties in with my learning from my degree. The teams are so helpful and welcoming to us.

My programme is fairly well structured, although we were the first ever clinical apprentices so there was some confusion at the start and not a set plan for the entire 5 years. The rotations and secondments were not arranged beforehand and while one luckily went ahead, the other was cancelled.

I receive a lot of support from my employer, from both my manager and my team mentor. I have check in meetings often with both of them and i have a good support system in my team if i ever need any extra help. No problem is too much for anyone and they are always willing to help.

Sometimes it is quite hard to contact Kent, and i have had some bad experiences before but my new advisor is wonderful and replies very quickly with informative responses. There is sometimes still a lag in getting a tutor to respond, but usually if you email enough people someone will get back to you. It has improved from the start of the apprenticeship.

I think that my degree and what i am learning helps me better understand the science behind the clinical trials i am supporting. I feel that without it i would have a lot more confusion while trying to understand the pharmaceutical side of things. Specialised clinical trial modules in my degree syllabus also help.

There are many social and networking events that you can be involved in, either in the team or department you are in. This has been obviously affected by covid but there have been some virtual networking events instead, and before covid there was many events we are invited to. There are also many volunteering opportunities which are greatly encouraged.

Yes

The company has many benefits and reward schemes, and value their employees. It is a great way to begin or continue your career and it is a well respected company. They encourage work-life balance and sustainability. I would recommend both the apprenticeships and working a job here to anyone. It is also very rewarding work.

The application process and interviews are difficult, so i would advise those applying to persevere and work hard for their application. The interviews for apprenticeships were very intense and took up an entire assessment day. Once the offer had been made, the onboarding process was very easy and helpful. I would've liked to have been told to stay calm and not to worry so much!