Apprentice HR Consultant Review

Part of a specialist business offering employment law advice to clients I research different EL topics and stay up to date with new legislation changes. Get involved with projects with the management team to assess customer experience and check how new systems are working for colleagues and customers. Lots of different ad hoc tasks depending on which projects are happening at the time.

Learnt more about academic writing since starting my course which I had no previous experience with. Developed my organisation skills by keeping on top of multiple tasks and projects while completing them to a high standard. Learnt more about my learning styles and how to maximise my productivity at different points through the day/week.

It is challenging as I have no previous experience with HR or coursework but I have a supportive team and I am enjoying it so far. I think the further into my course I get I will feel more confident in my job role and my knowledge on topics I don't deal with every day will be stronger.

I had some initial issues with the organisation on the providers side as I started in October and my course started in January but didn't receive enrollment documents until Christmas time which could have delayed me beginning the course and didn't have a set start date to plan for which made it hard to plan work. Once I started everything has sorted itself out.

I have check ins with my manager after every lecture to discuss topics in more detail and get help with anything I'm struggling with. I also know if I got overwhelmed with the amount of coursework I could ask and have other tasks reduced until after my deadlines. All my colleagues have also offered help if I'm ever stuck.

6 week calls with a coach - only had my introductory call so far so can't really comment yet but you can reach out earlier if there is anything more urgent you need. I also haven't had to reach out with any issues yet but all the lecturers have said we can email them for support if needed.

My day to day tasks are employment law related and my course is more operational HR related so even though they don't always match up it gives me a wider knowledge and means that if I wanted to move to an operation role in the future I could as I'll have the knowledge.

Yes there are different employee led networks to join for support from people from a similar backgrounds or to learn more from them. Our area of the bank also run menopause cafes and other meetups to support colleagues. There is also opportunities to volunteer throughout the year for example the bank pay employees entry fees for the kiltwalk.

Yes

At least in my area of the bank I have a supportive team and managers who will always help where they can. Lots of opportunities to progress my career and learn from others through mentoring programmes, additional learning etc. Opportunities to develop personally through volunteering and meeting people at all levels in my business area.

The initial interview process is quite challenging to best to do a lot of prep work. Also waited quite a long time between initially applying and interviewing so would recommend saving any job descriptions etc that you might need. At least for apprentices there is an extensive onboarding process with lots of talks from guest speakers, previous apprentices and you get a lot of background about the bank.