Apprentice Supervisor Review

My role consists of 80% training/ shop floor work & 20% study time. A usual week would be opening & closing the shop, serving customers, completing weekly paperwork using the HHT, dealing with cash management & team performance throughout. At some point in the week I would also complete an hours written work on my study training, these are modules to support my learning.

I’ve learned new skills since working for savers. I’ve learned how to deal with difficult situations, how to engage a team, how to effective motivate and communicate within the team. As well as this I have developed my communication skills and become more confident when speaking to customers.

I enjoy the program, from the apprentice team side it is amazing, the support is always there. Apprentice tutors go above and beyond to help support your learning and support with anything you might need. This always makes me feel secure and more confident in my role knowing I have that support.

From the apprenticeship team the organisation of the programme is amazing, if it was based solely on that I would rate it 10 stars. However there needs to be more communication between the apprenticeship team & store management teams. Throughout my apprenticeships completed at savers my training hasn’t been taken seriously and sometimes completely overlooked, I believe this would be improved if there was more involvement.

Support from my employer is limited, I think there’s a lack of understanding of the importance of upkeep of study and training time. More times than not, work will be backlogged and incomplete due to staff levels not being there, and there not being enough hours to have the bare minimum of uninterrupted study time (1 hour a week) let alone shop training.

The support from the training providers is amazing, I’ve never found it difficult to get questions answered if needed. The workshops we have are also very useful as it gives us chance to meet other apprentices and learn together. We’re given very useful resources to assist which come in handy.

The training provider has provided all the information needed for me to be able to understand and excel in my role. It’s increased my confidence and knowledge of the business and I’ve become much more confident within my role, which has lead to being a better team member.

There aren’t any extra curricular activities in relation to work. There are management meetings, and training for management but nothing that would apply to me. Pre corona there were face to face work shops for apprentices to meet and complete training together, these have apprentices from across the area to meet & it was really helpful to speak to people doing the same qualification.

Yes

Overall I would recommend savers, they’ve provided an opportunity for me to progress in management which isn’t something that you get with every company. The quality of the training provider is very professional and friendly which is the deciding factor, stores need to do more in support for both the apprentices and the training provider but overall I think the scheme is really good.

I would say to be consistent with training, try and have a schedule you can stick to to ensure work is completed to a high standard and so store management teams know what to expect and how to support you. I would also say he confident in your performance because it improves overtime without even noticing.