Business Degree Apprentice Review

The day-to-day composition of work varies dependent on the placement you are in. Placements range from those such as quality to finance or logistics among others. Most days are a combination of placement and project based work, as well as working on extra-curricular activities if you choose to get involved in these.

The apprenticeship has allowed me to gain and develop a number of skills. Through the possibility given to network with a significant number of employees and apprentices, as well as get involved in multiple different placements, you can gain skills such as teamworking, organisation, communication, time management and independence among many others that all contribute to significant personal development.

Though some placements are not as enjoyable as others, the ability to go on different placements and learn about different areas of the business is crucial to an effective apprenticeship as it is a good way to develop and understand where your strengths and interests lie. I also really like how we are treated as apprentices, we are given responsibility to work on big projects/tasks and this is really enjoyable.

The structure is good. We are given 20% (1 day) a week to study towards our degree qualification and then when we don't have too much placement work, we can work on our uni work at work too. The workplace structure itself is good in the way that you are sent on different placements; however some placements themselves lack working structure and rely on you to be extremely proactive if you want to be given work to do.

Our employer (apprentice training manager) frequently reviews our progress in a formal meeting; checking on how we are getting on in our placements and at University. I find that the meetings are beneficial but could be a little more frequent as it seems a long period of time between each one.

Abingdon and Witney are the training provider for our Business Degree which is accredited in conjunction with Oxford Brookes. A&W for the most part provide a good standard of teaching and clear guidance on assignments, however there has been an occasion in which the assignment content provided was incorrect and thus tricky to write about. The support offered in this instance could be better, but for the most part it is good.

The qualification content is thoroughly enjoyable, though very coursework heavy. It covers a range of areas such as marketing, communications, finance, HR, project management etc. Some placements at work can make use of such learning, but much of the work is quite disjointed with what we actually learn at college.

The BMW Group offers a number of extra-curricular activities such as a Newsletter Team and Charity team where you can work with others on non-placement related projects. These rely on self-subscription and this means many don't embrace the change to benefit from carrying out these activities; to combat this BMW themselves should host a few more mandatory extra-curricular activities that everyone can get involved in without having to be part of a team; e.g. team building across years, plant visits etc.

Yes

Overall BMW is a great place to work and learn. You can develop in many ways as a BMW Apprentice, meet new people, learn new skills and also enjoy yourself whilst doing so. There is also a great perk in the company car scheme which let's young people drive the products that they work towards creating.

BMW is always looking for proactive and enthusiastic individuals who want to try their best and excel in the workplace. The more proactive you are here, the more likely you are to develop and succeed. When applying, make sure your passion for working comes across and be yourself in the interview!