Central operations coordinator Review

During my role I had a very varied day-to-day routine, starting as a planner, with admin work on the side. This involved a large amount of office work, ranging from emails, to phone calls, to data validation and manipulation. I would create transport manifests for our vehicles to follow on delivery routes and then provide support as needed to our drivers and sales teams.

I have learnt a great deal in terms of project planning skills. Being provided with a variety of tools and concepts to tackle head on. Having dropped out of college I did have a base knowledge of a lot of the concepts prior to starting. This helped me flesh out those skills.

The programme itself was very well set out by my company with inter-departmental visits arranged regularly. Although this did drop off nearer the end when we settled into our roles and became important to daily operation of the departments. Visiting other sites and departments was a highlight of the experience for me personally. As for the academic side, it was self driven for the majority, so I wouldn't necessarily describe it as enjoyable, rather just 'getting on with it'. The project work was enjoyable, being able to see the genuine difference you can make within the company.

From the company side of things, again I can't fault it. Everything was very well planned, down to individual days and weeks being specified. This provided a real, tangible focus. The learning provider side was lacking however, with my coach having to reschedule regularly and often not responding for weeks on end, with no other points of contact. Leading to unnecessary pressure of both myself and my employer.

My employers were incredibly supportive, giving me both the time and resources I required at all times. This really is testament to the planning and effort they put in, with almost all of it going exactly as planned. In the few occasions where something didn't quite go right, they were responsive and proactive in helping me out.

From the a resource perspective, it is all there on a website for you to go through as needed. From a personal perspective, when I did have questions or when I was struggling, on multiple occasions they failed to respond. I had to escalate to my manager and even our head of development at one point. On the occasions I did get a response, they were very helpful and pleasant to work with. It was just the lack of consistency that made it a struggle.

This qualification has been very useful from a projects perspective, it has given me all the tools I have needed to effectively plan for major changes within the company and even allowed me to suggest my own. It has also provided many useful evaluation tools and introduced me to some very interesting concepts that I will continue to use in the future.

As far as I am aware we do have nights out and social get togethers within the company, but with my team being relatively small and internal, we don't tend to participate in a lot of the seller events. I won't be able to give an accurate perspective on this as I haven't participated in many. But from what I have been told they are enjoyable experiences and do tend to happen around large events.

Yes

The culture of the company is second to none. My team are a brilliant group of people who have been incredibly supportive of my journey. They have a major emphasis on people and development and have demonstrated this in their apprenticeship program. Management are approachable and friendly, with regular meeting to discuss progress and what to aim for next.

If you are on the fence about applying, go for it. Planning is key, with the right plan, the sky is the limit. There is currently a heavy focus on development within the company, so now is the time to go for it. So long as you work hard and have a positive attitude, you will fit right in.