Account Manager Review

My role includes meeting and talking to customers and new clients to promote the BSS service and product bag. I will also maintain clients requests whilst liaising with each branch and specialist departments. I will manage my own diary to maintain a good level of coverage across both Stoke and Derby.

Over the course of the apprenticeship I have learned where to source company information from such as legal, compliance and learnt about safeguarding while being aware of the signs in other colleagues. Some of the in house course material was also beneficial such as the specialist product training day that we did.

My experienced was mixed. I was one of the first candidates to start the course back in 2019, by this point I had completed a number of modules. Once COVID hit all of my sales colleagues in the company were mandatory enrolled on the course and I effectively had to start again.

This again is mixed, The learning modules to start with the support from Josie was enjoyable and knowledgeable, once all of the modules had been completed and I was submitted to gateway. I did not particularly enjoy the end point assessment. It did not mirror the format of the learning modules and I failed several times with some of the reasons being very harsh, such as using the word 'we' as opposed to 'I' although I was talking collectively as a team as I am a member of the team and would be very much involved as was described.

I received a lot of support from my employer. My manager [This section of the comment has been removed by a member of the RateMyApprenticeship Team because it did not meet our site terms and conditions] dedicated a day for us all on the course to focus on the apprenticeship. He would hold regular reviews which included [This section of the comment has been removed by a member of the RateMyApprenticeship Team because it did not meet our site terms and conditions] to track our progress and offer further support or guidance if we needed it. No complaints

To mirror the above comment, [This section of the comment has been removed by a member of the RateMyApprenticeship Team because it did not meet our site terms and conditions] would check in regularly to see how we were getting on and advise if we were not hitting the standards. Monthly meetings were scheduled and feedback was always given once we had submitted modules. [This section of the comment has been removed by a member of the RateMyApprenticeship Team because it did not meet our site terms and conditions] would also set time frames for the works to be completed to keep me on track.

I had been in the external sales role for 3 years before starting the apprenticeship so starting this did not greatly benefit me as it would others looking to grow into the role. I did manage to pick up some good practice such as being more aware of customer body language, instead of just listening to what they say but how they say it and how their body is positioned.

Yes, BSS is big on networking across the group as we have coverage of 58 branches across the UK. We have an annual conference, regional meetings and 'Power On' nights which are a great way to socialise and apprenticeships are always a topic of conversation for colleagues who are either starting and apprenticeship or who have completed one.

Yes

I would recommend Travis Perkins, although we are currently going through hard times, for me personally Travis Perkins has allowed me to be myself and also show that if you work hard and apply yourself to the best of your ability, it will get recognised and possible promotions will follow putting you into roles that you aspire to be in or even encourage you into a role because people see that you are capable even when you may not see it yourself.

Travis Perkins group will encourage the best from people. They are a company that if you put work into them, you get work back. Also Travis Perkins own a number of high performing brands and business so training under one umbrella and picking up skills are generally transferable to the other brands within the group.