Customer Service & Operational Planning Apprentices Review

As an apprentice here we learn multiple skills throughout our apprenticeship. As you learn more and more skills what work you will be completing each day varies on which skill has the highest queues and facing more demand. On my current skill I liase with external contractors to help complete complex work.

My time management and organisational skills have developed tremendously since working here. My current skill requires adept planning abilities as I liase with multiple different people to organise works taking place

I enjoy lots of parts of this apprenticeship and enjoy learning new skills and taking them on. However there is little consistency within our role we are constantly pulled from pillar to post working on one skill one day and another the next, this can be confusing, annoying and frustrating when working on skills that require a lot of back and forth and are difficult to pass on to other members of your team.

The structure of this programme could be miles better than it is. It is clear they took on apprentices without much planning beforehand. We've had constant changes of teams and management and when we started they had no where near enough managers to cover the amount of apprentices they had taken on

Our managers are stretched thin in terms of their work load making it difficult at times to get direct time to work on you, however they do try their best with the time they do have. Openreach offer lots perks, like mental health assistance, discount on electronics and broadband

We get a day allocated to allow us to complete our Apprenticeship work and you can request for me if you need it.

Some aspects of the apprenticeship can be heavily applied to our role and the tasks we do. However overall we are on a customer service apprenticeship and have very little involvement with our end users

We occasionally organise to go for some drinks after work, I think some of the lads also play football

No

Overall the apprenticeship is all over the place. Changes happen weekly, from one skill to another with no thought to the repercussions on jobs already in the works. It's never come across to me that there is much loyalty to the staff here, however I have only been here 10 months so could be something I just have witnessed yet. A lot of the people you work with will be great, and you'll make some good friends however despite them pushing for you all to work as team and choose a team name to really get involved, they'll just as quickly split your teams up without much notice or thought.

Just don't expect to get everything straight away. Taking in all the new systems and processes can be hard but it comes with time and you will begin to pick it up as you go along .