Apprenticeship Advisor Review

My role is to support in the development, creation and implementation of apprenticeship and funded skills programmes across our Co-op ensuring that they meet our business needs and support our colleagues own goals and aspirations. This also involves managing our apprenticeship levy account monitoring and reporting on spend whilst ensuring that we adhere to all funding guidelines.

I am part way through the CIPD qualification part of the Apprenticeship which has allowed me to develop a deeper understanding of the other specialist areas of HR that i don't already have exposure to in my role. Taking on more responsibility outside of my role has allowed me to apply this knowledge in the workplace and develop my skills further.

I enjoy the programme, i find the content of the different units very interesting and its helpful to get a greater understanding of the external market to get insight into what other organisations are doing within their people/HR function to compare to the Co-op and helps with my wider understanding of HR.

Arch has structured the programme well into weekly bitesize chunks, although as it planned in this way it does make it easier to fall behind if you are off work for a week or longer so you do need to manage your time ahead to ensure you stay on track.

My employer is great, my team and line manager are aware of the 20% requirement and support me in taking this time to work towards my apprenticeship each week. We also have an apprenticeship advisor who looks after the programme who is also a great support in making sure everything is going smoothly with the training provider.

It can be mixed, we recently had a change in LDC which meant that their was a period of time where the support was lacking. It takes time to build up that working relationship again so there is a period of adjustment. Our new apprenticeship tutor Ian is really supportive and engaging making the sessions much more interesting and formative.

The CIPD qualification gives me a deeper understanding of HR as a whole. I work in quite a specialist area and wouldn't usually get much exposure to the other specialist/ generalist areas of HR at the Co-op but the qualification gives me this and allows me to develop my knowledge and skills in the workplace.

Co-op has lots of different colleague networks that offer a variety of events that everyone can access and get involved in. This has mainly now moved online but has meant that the events are much more accessible to colleagues and there tends to be more of them which is good.

Yes

Co-op is a great place to work, there really is a difference with it being co-operative and you really notice that in the way the organisation does business, there is a big focus on the community and ensuring that we give back to the community is a big part of that.

Be your authentic self, our Co-op values are really important so make sure you look into those before applying so they are familiar and you will hopefully see similarities with your own personal values! Keep an open mind, be ready for change, be eager to learn and meet lots of lovely people along the way!