Software Engineering Degree Apprentice Review

For 3 days a week I work like a junior engineer in any production team. I'm given task, I help with feedback/review, and help test functionality. The other 2 are spent doing a mixture of diploma and uni work (Though this time often gets taken over by diploma/project mostly).

When I started at the company I had a couple years experience but my knowledge and skills have not sat idle. The project has always find new ways to challenge me and my colleague, encouraging us to work closely together to solve issues. I have also had the opportunity to work with new technologies I hadn't before

I love the project, the university hits the standards it's meant to, but the internal management of apprentices and diploma work is poorly done. They don't have an understanding of the work required for University. And rather than trying to understand apprentice's individual needs management harasses/bullies apprentices till they stop giving feedback and just go with the ineffective system that is already in place

Not well at all. There's 3 main sections of the apprenticeship; Degree, Diploma, and Placement. The organisation between the three and lack of communication leads to a lot of messes. Often times the university will set multiple assignments at once with due dates near each other. Then diploma complains cause during this period no-one is working on diploma, but this is due to poor organisation from the top and all apprentices struggle with the same miss-managed schedule. We also didn't receive the weeks we do at Uni till near the end of the year and even then the list of modules we were meant to be studying on the block weeks were wrong.

My employer has many helpful services to help support employees outside of work. But a few months ago the company removed the local safeguarding officer making it hard/impossible to get help/support for the more vulnerable of apprentices. I think this has contributed to the more toxic culture that has been seen coming from apprentice/skill coach management

Not a lot. I'm a student with officially documented learning difficulties and health issues but no teacher seems to ever know they're got such students in their classes. This results in them not taking adequate steps to support students. E.g. having all slides ready day before so can read ahead, have all lectures recorded, etc. Also as a remote student the only way I have to get in contact with lecturers is Teams/Email which can lead to slow reply's or difficulty in getting the help needed as we're unable to see them in person regularly. We also don't seem to receive the same if any that main campus students get. I had 2-3 months off last year due to medical reasons and the university didn't contact me or put a plan in place for my return which result in when I was ready to return being told the uni couldn't support it and I had to re-start the year.

It doesn't. From what I've seen the qualification has little impact on actual job performance. The training we get along the way helps teach fundamentals that the company's projects can then build on but I've seen apprentice get 1st class Hons but no-one in the company would say they're a 'skilled software engineer'. It seems to test for academic performance rather than actual skill of apprentices. Having said that it does give us a recognised First Class Hons which allows us to progress further in our careers both within and outside the company

There are a few groups like lunchtime football, and sign language class. These are all arranged and run by employees. As apprentices we normally arrange for social events within our cohorts for outside worktime to catch-up and have that social bond. It's very rare for a mixture of apprentices and other employees to gather though.

Yes

Even though there are many issues within the system I firmly believe the foundations are there and it's easier to make a change from within. I do everything in my power to help improve the scheme as I know other apprentices do to as even if it doesn't help us it will help the next generation of apprentices coming through.

Know the company and what they do. Being able to talk to employers with even an interest in the technologies they use can cause them to pay closer attention to you as you've shown a good level of interest/self-drive that they will be looking for. Also have a project that you can talk about. Could be anything from a website about your cat's walking habits to AI/Machine Learning. It all shows personal drive and determination which are highly regarded by all employers