Account Manager Review

The apprenticeship involves rotating around different business functions - sales, marketing, supply chain and category. In my sales role I was responsible for managing a customer plan for Nestlé Food portfolio. This involved building a promotional plan, negotiating costs and communicating the forecasted performance internally to the business.

I have significantly developed my communication, leadership and management skills. The apprenticeship makes you a competent business professional.

I greatly enjoyed the varied programme, the exposure to many different areas of the business allowed me to understand where I wanted to focus for my next career moves. However, it was demanding to deliver in the role and complete a degree apprenticeship. It required focus and effective time management.

The structure of the programme is very clear. However, it was often difficult to influence the final role on scheme, this relies on you using your built network of previous managers and team members.

I received a consistently high level and quality of support from my manager and team throughout the scheme. I think the HR management of the apprentices could be more consistent to ensure this is a single point of reference and support whilst managers and teams may be changing. Overall, Nestle were very supportive and allowed me to successfully graduate off scheme.

The intensive weeks with the university ensure we have everything we need to complete the degree. There is some follow up support or support structure missing in instances however, I felt equipped to complete the degree to a high standard.

Each module for the degree had varying levels of application. Many modules were useful for providing the business foundations and this helped me speak more confidently and competently in my role. In addition, the dissertation encouraged a new form of working style and behaviour to tackle a problem, this is a technique that I will continue to use.

There are occasional networking events. The main social activities I have linked to work is ongoing friendship with the apprentices in my year. We regularly socialise outside of work.

Yes

Great support, opportunity to develop in a large multinational and understand what varied area of business interests you.

With working from home becoming more common, make sure you're happy with the idea of working virtually and only seeing colleagues once a week or so.