Content Coordinator Graduate Review

I work within the Community team in my department. As part of my role, I support our colleague volunteering programme, colleague fundraising activities e.g. timetabling organisation-wide fundraising activities, supporting individual colleagues choosing to volunteer for our community fund, and working with the Community Manager on our grant giving programme

Due to how varied the activities are within my role, one skill that I am developing is my time management. I often have to switch between different activities, so it is important that I have a clear idea of what tasks and objectives I need to achieve and by when. My manager has been great at supporting me developing this skill e.g. how to negotiate deadlines with my stakeholders and prioritising my workload, as this is a skill I didn't often have to utilise much in the past as my workload used to be lighter or have a singular focus

I am enjoying my apprenticeship programme very much. It's a completely different element of community than I am used to for my day-to-day role. Therefore, I am learning a variety of new things, some that I can take away and apply straight away to my usual role, and some that I can apply to the project I am working on for my apprenticeship

I like that I there is clear structure to my apprenticeship programme so that I know exactly where and when I will be doing my 20% off the job training. Every Friday, during Sunderland University's semester time, I have dedicated contact time with my tutor and peers where we go over the programme material and the outcomes. I know what is expected of me weekly and what I need to present for my end-point assessment,

I have a great support network within the organisation when it comes to my development and the apprenticeship programme. One of my concerns originally was 'who will I be able to shadow or sit with to fill in the gaps of my knowledge' when it came to the apprenticeship, and my Head of Department was able to support me to resolve this. I now am supporting another team once a week to fill in gaps in my knowledge when it comes to my apprenticeship, as the work that they do directly relates to my apprenticeship.

I think the support my training provider is relevant to a certain degree. They helped set the foundation of what I am expected to know; but as it is an apprenticeship, they can only give me the tools I need to help find a relevant project within my organisation, to work on to build up my evidence portfolio for my end-point assessment

One of the modules that was part of my apprenticeship was all about communication and this really helped not only the work I was doing for my programme but also my day-to-day role. I was able to come back into my team and apply the things that I had learnt, e.g. when crafting colleague communications.

There are a variety of extracurricular activities to get involved with at my work. There is a Health and Wellbeing team, who although I am not a part of, plan a variety of activities and initiatives that colleagues can get involved with. I particularly like when they organise fitness and exercise related activities as these are things I enjoy and like to part in.

Yes

I've been with Newcastle Building Society since my placement year at university and the support I've received has been fantastic. Rather than just bringing me in and leaving me to get in with my role, as part of their Early Talent programme, I've been involved with bsuiness project in my first year, that involved working with my peers and a variety of colleagues who I normally wouldn't have. Then, rather than leave me to get on with my role, once I re-joined them after graduation, ahead of my return, my Head of Department met with me several times so we could plan my return and my development - which ultimately led me to beginning my apprenticeship when I came back.

If in doubt, speak up and ask questions. The people are around you will always be willing to help out and clarify anything you might not fully understand. I'd also recommend that you develop your time management and prioritisation skills - this can help you effectively manage your tasks. If this is something you struggle with, then ask your support network on how they manage this and see which tips and tricks suit your working style.