Degree Apprentice - HR Review

In my role I complete a wide variety of activities including responding to emails in our shared inbox, recruitment for our programmes, managing relationships with our training providers, carrying out projects relating to spreading awareness externally of our programmes, financial management and cross charging for salaries, generating contracts, and general administration. This means that I have the opportunity to work on different things and expand my breadth of knowledge in different areas.

I have been able to develop my project management skills and was given the responsibility of managing others which contributed to my development as a leader. Planning and prioritisation were key to ensure on-time delivery and have contributed towards my organisational and time-management skills. I have strengthened my financials skills through managing budgets and raising purchase orders. I have developed collaborative relationships with our finance partner and have been able to resolve problems, developing new skills in business acumen.

I am very much enjoying my apprenticeship at Unilever. There are constant opportunities to attend training programmes and my line manager supports my development by outlining my key goals and reviewing these with me to ensure I meet my targets. I have really enjoyed the Chartered Management course and the topics that I have learnt about, especially the strategic management module which is what I am currently undertaking. I love how my learnings within the module are relevant to my organisation and the tasks I carry out in my role, which means that I am able to apply my learnings directly in my assignments.

The University programme is well structured in the sense that we are assigned two modules per year and complete six modules over the course of the apprenticeship which are all interesting and engaging. They consist of weekly activities, tutorials, readings, collaborative exercises, forums, etc. Within my organisation, there I have a line manager, designated HR team, and apprenticeship programme advisor who I can lean on for support if I have any struggles or concerns with my apprenticeship. The HR team also advise of questions and queries, whilst supporting my learning journey through the additional learning and support sessions that they run throughout the year.

I have weekly check-ins with my line manager to discuss current tasks and jobs to be done, which helps ensure that I keep on track and know my priorities. We also have two team meetings per week to run through activities, seek advice and new ideas from other team members, discuss any blockers and problems were I need additional support. We also keep a team KANBAN board to track all activity, progress and deadlines which help ensure I am progressing my own development.

At the University I have a module tutor, practice tutor, programme delivery manager, and a student support team in place. They ensure that I stay on track with the programme. My module tutor provides feedback on my assignments and advises on how I can improve moving forward. I also meet with my practice tutor quarterly and complete progress reviews. During these I set new goals to work on throughout my apprenticeship and inform my tutor of how I am getting on and any challenges I am facing. My line manager also attends these sessions to give feedback on my performance in role. If there are any topics or areas that I am particularly struggling with, I am able to ask questions in our tutorials, which are then answered my by the module tutors. My practice tutor has also provided me with additional materials in the past to help me understand concepts and theories better and talks me through anything I am struggling to understand, giving practice examples.

The content and theory that are covered in my apprenticeship have overlap with my organisation and the activities that I complete in my role. I am able to apply my learning to the organisation and in assignments I can write directly about how my contributions help to shape the organisation. The standards covered in the apprenticeship include areas such as project management, leadership, developing relationships, management of self, and communication. These are all areas that align with my daily tasks and responsibilities in role which helps to ensure that I am able to compile evidence for my portfolio to showcase my learnings. I am regularly applying module theory and concepts to my role and I know understand my organisation and its industry better as a result of the programme learnings.

Unilever has a community team which organises lots of fun events for apprentices to participate in including quizzes, challenges, off-site events, etc. This means that we can grow our networks. There are also opportunities in the outreach team to attend schools careers fairs to talk about our experiences of being an apprentice.

Yes

Unilever is a great company to work for as they are fully committed to supporting me as an apprentice and ensuring that I develop. They also have great credentials such as sustainability and a brilliant organisational culture where there is respect for everyone, no matter what their role or experience.

Be yourself! This is probably the biggest one and it's important that you show your authentic self in the interview. Do your research on the company beforehand and consider why you would be a good fit. Show that you have a willingness to learn and have a positive working attitude.