Technology Apprentice Review

I have undertaken a couple different roles within the past few months - the first being a Junior Java Dev on a government contract. This was in a team of around 10-20 people, some of whom were based in India, where we worked in an Agile methodology, so had daily stand-ups and had tasks to complete throughout the day.

I have learned and developed many skills over the past few months, including communication skills, presenting skills, general professional and office etiquette, etc. alongside the more technical skills I have gained, from writing code, using new tools/services/software, working in Agile, documenting processes, and many more. Whichever role you will undertake, there will most definitely be many skills to learn or develop.

I find my programme is very intense in terms of balancing a 9-5 while studying for university, and managing a social life - but with the right balance, I am able to enjoy all parts. I especially like working in new teams and new roles to gain a larger understanding of the industry.

The structure of this programme is pretty standard, nothing amazing about it but could definitely be improved. The stucture basically consists of university one day a week during term-time and working the rest of the days - there could be more time dedicated to training/courses/etc. but this programme is pretty much on-par, if not better than many others.

There is a fair amount of support on offer from the employer, though I have not made use of any thus far. There is support from the apprentice team, alongside the HR team, your specific project team, fellow apprentices and also from the university if you have any university based issues.

There is ample support from the university when it comes to university based issues. The lectures and drop in sessions are pretty self explanatory but on top of that, you can reach out to lecturers if you need to, though some do take a while to reply. You can also reach out to the apprentice team at Accenture to raise any further concerns.

The degree portion of the programme doesn't really add much value for role-specific skills but does provide a little bit of a further understanding with a technical foundation and soft skills. The main technical skills, such as coding and working in teams, and agile, etc. aren't easily understood or can be learned via a qualification but requires experience.

There are probably more extra-curricular things to get up to than I know about, but with covid, there isn't too much advertised as of yet. There are an increasing number of networking events, which are useful and fun, and a great reason to go to the office. There are also many cultural societies to get involved with too.

Yes

Accenture is a great place to start your career, and to learn relevant industry skills and also a great place to progress your career - but personally I'm not sure if their salaries are great, or even the opportunities of promotion, but they are definitely on par with the other large organisations out there.

This is a great opportunity if you would like a degree, gain experience working in the industry, don't want student debt and would like to earn while doing so. The salary isn't too bad considering you are getting a degree sponsored, but that comes at a heavy cost of losing a large portion of your social life and most of the 'uni life', university on this programe is very different to normal university, but if that's what you want then it is great