Client Management Apprentice Review

My role as a Client Management Apprentice generally involves maintaining relationships with Clients. The daily workload could see you drafting emails for Consultants, speaking to other teams to get information, creating agenda's and meeting packs for Trustee meetings and attending those meetings, carrying out legal work- for Pension Schemes such as Scheme Return's and being responsible for the billing work for Clients. Majority of the work varies day to day, but the more common items of practise will be collating meeting packs and dealing with Trustee / member enquiries.

Before coming into the role, I worked in Hospitality so was used to a customer-facing role with people skills and adaptation, but this job has strengthened those aspects hugely as I have gained the confidence to speak to Trustees and Chair's of Pension Schemes of any size, as well as the confidence to send confidential / important emails without any checking. It's also introduced me into new IT processes and learning new software, such as Excel, Word additions, Powerpoint etc. Time management has also been a big factor that improved during the role with balancing out work and external study.

I enjoy the aspect of knowing my role is important and has meaning. Trustee meetings are always looked forward to, as it's formal and you get to visit multiple locations in the UK and meet a range of personalities. I enjoy the social aspect of the programme, such as calling and speaking to other Apprentices on the job, unfortunately there isn't many in my local office but that hasn't limited anything. Some parts of the programme could be improved, such as organisation and structure of the studying and exams.

For the most part, the programme is well structured and has a clear, defined path for the apprenticeship. This is outlined in the induction which is held a few weeks into the job role. However, an area of improvement could be the timing between starting the job role and undertaking assignments/exams for the apprenticeship. There's not much time between getting onto the job and learning what it's about before you are expected to submit the first assignment which requires you to have already been studying for at least 2 weeks prior to submitting it.

I receive a fair amount of support from my employer. When I have any queries about work or study, I tend to speak to consultants who have been in my position and completed the apprenticeship and get their view on it. Any complaints I have, I speak to my manager about it and they are fair and open to receive it so they can pass it on to the relevant team. Aon provides an immense amount of support and help overall to their apprentices, launching workshops and regular training sessions for new starters and sending out surveys to further improve our experiences.

When you start the job role, you have an induction on the apprenticeship a few weeks in, this goes over the pathway and what to expect in the coming years. From then, there is no further contact until you are expected to submit an assignment which nobody knew the study guide to use for revision prior to these. -an area of improvement. It's clear our coach values us and tries to help, however they do not know the exam we're taking and the actual content/question types it includes, which you wouldn't expect from a coach. Overall, the support is fairly good though in that they ask us if we have any problems and organise workshops and pay for the examinations.

Studying for my qualification has helped immensely in my day-to-day job role, as it provides me with the background knowledge as to the work I'm undertaking in the office. Before studying, the work I would do would be blank and have no meaning, however once onto the apprenticeship fully and being given the relevant study guides and courses, it shapes together into having a better understanding of my job role and where I fit in the pensions workplace, ultimately resulting to performing better with knowing what to suggest, write, etc.

Due to covid, our social's have been reduced significantly, however in the first few weeks of joining, our local early careers leader made efforts to organise a social on the friday which we attended. The team hosts weekly 5-a-side football tournaments on a Tuesday which are fun and allow myself to get more introduced to the wider team. Other new starters / graduates also host regular personal socials after work to get to know us better. In terms of formal events, a few get held a year but they are usually tailored to clients or awards.

Yes

Aon is an incredibly rewarding and assisting workplace to join. As soon as you start, there are consultants keen to get to know you better, introducing themselves and explaining what they do and asking what you do. In the office, it's a friendly atmosphere and you soon get to know everyone and have a laugh with them in your spare time. The role itself has so much room for growth and specialisation, as you get to choose what area of pensions you wish to study for later down the pathway, allowing you to branch out from a traditional consultant.

Be confident, formal and show an interest in the Pensions workplace. Do your research prior to applying into the PMI (if for client management) and the layout of the exam process, as well as look into Aon as a firm - Aon United, sponsoring partners, clients, etc, and write down any key facts or figures that are relevant for the year.