Environmental Practise Degree Apprentice Review

On a day-to-day basis I work within the environment team interacting with both senior and graduate members, normally in an office-based environment. I work with environmental managers and consultants, environmental impact assessors and generalists as well as other environment teams including heritage, town planning and ecology. I also spend time completing my of the job training for university.

In my role I am able to learn a range of new skills. Since starting my apprenticeship I have learnt how to produce high-level environmental constraints maps, draft environmental reports and complete environmental scoring reviews. I have also been able to develop more technical skills including ArcGIS and excel knowledge.

For me, I feel that this was the best decision, I enjoy meeting a wide range of different members of staff and finding out about their journeys and roles within the company. I also enjoy the range of different teams that I can be exposed to, in order to further my knowledge or entertain my curiosity.

My programme university wise is very well structured in order to allow us to adapt to the balance of work and coursework. We are able to have one day a week to focus purely on university which aids with finding this balance. The course is structured so that I can have regular check-ins to ensure I am up to speed.

My employer provides me with a mentor who is able to assist me through any queries or doubts I have and point me in the right directions. If my mentor is unsure where to take me then I am able to go to my line manager of which I have a good relationship with and they support me with any issues or concerns I have.

My provider is slightly more distant than some other courses due to me being on a block release system, however they are always fast with getting back to any emails and happy to have calls in order to talk through anything you need advice or support with, they also schedule in regular catch-up calls throughout the year

By developing my knowledge and skills in my qualification, I am then able to put this physically into action in the workplace. By doing this I am also able to take this one step further and better the knowledge that I learnt at university by applying it in a workplace situation.

The office itself hold many different social events ranging from pizza nights to bowling, as well as different sporting events including a local squash club. We also hold coffee catch up clubs to allow us to be paired with different people in the office to expand our network and gain some friendly faces.

Yes

I feel they have such good values to the company, that I resonate with. I also feel I have a good support structure and have many people to go to for any issues that I may have. The social events have really allowed me to network and meet new people which has also aided my work content by supporting in different teams and putting my learning into practise.

I would suggest fully researching, make sure that you are aware of everything that is offered to you as an apprentice, don't be afraid to reach out and ask questions that you are unsure of or would like to know more about. I would come with an open mind and don't set your expectations of yourself too high, you are an apprentice and you are here to learn, you are not expected to know everything and the people at Mott MacDonald will understand this!