Trainee Bioinformatician Review

A bioinformatician is someone who uses technology and/or statistics to answer biological questions. My typical day to day role involves running bioinformatics programs or scripts to analyse biological data, creating presentations to capture and share results with multidisciplinary scientists and writing reports to describe the findings of completed projects.

I am coming from a biochemistry background due to my undergrad, therefore I have learnt a lot of new skills, specifically programming languages including Java, Python and R as part of the apprenticeship. I have also developed some of my existing skills such as scientific communication and writing whilst on my role.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this programme thus far, bioinformatics is an interesting field to be in as technology is rapidly advancing there is always new tools being developed and new skills to learn which makes it exciting. I have also enjoyed the aspect of directly applying the knowledge learnt from the course to use on my role.

The programme is well structured for mastership students it has been tailored to be manageable for full time workers. Each module is covered in week blocks which you select in advanced so this allows you to organise your time appropriately. There is a lot of support provided by the lecturers as well as PhD students.

I receive plenty of support from my employer, I have weekly 1-1 with my line manager in which I feedback my experience and raise any issues/support that I need. There is also an apprenticeship community which is helpful to create connections with those who are completing a similar programme to you.

I received a good amount of support from the training provider, clear communication was provided prior the EPA on what to expect and questions were answered. An exemplar/template guidance was also provided to help with writing the synoptic report elements of the EPA. The university apprenticeship team was also very supportive and were very easy to reach out to and contact for any help.

The apprenticeship has really helped me perform my day to day role, a majority of the skills I use today have been acquired from the course. As I did not come from a bioinformatic background I have definitely feel as though I know more about the role and industry by completing this apprenticeship.

There are plenty of extra-curricular activities to get involved in inside and outside of work. There are sport clubs,company events and networks and social events, I have attended many of the company events on site which have been good fun and a good way to network with those across the company.

Yes

Unilever is a great company to work for due to its morals and values. Doing an apprenticeship with the company is an amazing way to gain invaluable experience whilst gaining a qualification all debt free.

Try to gain some experience in the field you want to get a role in and to be optimistic