Digital Degree Apprentice Review

During the studying periods at the University of Birmingham, the day involves attending lectures, lab sessions and sometimes seminars. It will typically involve working on assignments that have been set for modules however in exam season it will more revolve around revising for exams. During placements, this can vary depending on the role assigned. Personally my role involves manipulating and visualising enterprise data using SQL.

Yes definitely. At university we have learned theoretically and practically topics including but not exhaustive: Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science, Logic and Computation, Data Structures and Algorithms, Object Oriented Programming in Java, Functional Programming in Haskell, Systems programming in C/C++, Networks and Security. In my job role I have been working a lot with Python, Pandas and SQL.

Without a doubt I can say I love this programme - I wanted to study computer science at University of Birmingham specifically and so being paid to do so and have a guaranteed job with work experience gained during my team here is amazing. I love to program specifically and have a chance to do this in my job role and a chance to learn about the concepts in my role as a student.

I think the course is structured fairly, being similar to a "sandwich" course having a year in industry during the 3rd year of the programme. When it comes to placements I feel sometimes not all the roles are not perfectly aligned to our university content as they are less technical and more business oriented, however some other apprentices I have met would say they prefer that. University is during years 1, 2, and 4. Placements are 10 weeks at end of year 1, and year 3.

Firstly, we receive immense financial support - having our tuition fees paid for and a salary on top of that. During University we have contacts within the company who can help us with any queries or issues we are facing. We have tripartite meetings with the University and Employer to check everything is progressing okay.

The university is mostly brilliant, with great lecturers and engaging content. We generally receive more than enough information to complete assignments and perform well on exams. However sometimes I have felt the impact of COVID in my second year where pre-recorded lectures have been re-used instead of live, interactive teaching.

Personally it helps greatly - I have to problem solve and think critically, which I think it implicitly taught through practice of programming. We have used Python and pandas at university briefly, so that's a plus. Programming concepts tend to transfer between languages (e.g Java and Python) fairly well, so concepts I learnt in Java have helped me.

COVID may have delayed this slightly, however despite this there are social events and activities. Some might differ by team, for example a member of my team organises weekly football. Some things are wider, such as the Vodafone Games in the summer including dodgeball, rounders, capture the flag etc. I have also been a part of other socials in my wider org.

Yes

I would and in fact already have recommended Vodafone this programme to friends because it allows me to obtain a university degree at a great university in a subject I love, whilst receiving work experience, a guaranteed job and a salary on top. I feel like anyone who is thinking of studying computer science at university should consider doing this Digital Degree Apprenticeship.

It's been a while since my assessment day, and things may have changed since then but: don't worry too much, be yourself and try to think on your feet. I was very nervous before applying but the people I met at my assessment centre were really nice and I felt comfortable pretty quickly, so you'll be fine.