Clinical Trial Specialist apprentice Review

My day to day work is in an early phase oncology clinical trial, working in the global study management team. I manage a country and a vendor for this study, alongside admin work and keeping trackers up to date. I attend meetings with local study teams and work alongside them to run the study.

I have learnt many new skills, such as time management, how to behave in the workplace, good clinical practice, and how to present myself to others. I have also learnt a lot about clinical studies, specializing in oncology and early phase. I have also developed a lot in public speaking and presenting in meetings.

I really enjoy the work aspect of my Programme, and AstraZeneca is a good place to work. I have learnt a lot during my almost 4 years of work experience here and I have bonded with my team and manager. The university side of the programme can be more challenging, due to it being entirely self taught and us having no access to lectures and it being difficult to reach tutors.

My programme was not very well structured when we joined, as we were the first apprentices of our kind in the company and at the uni. Therefore there was some disorganisation and no set 5 year plan. Some of the university modules had not yet been written or confirmed so we didn't know what we would be doing at each point in the year.

I recieve a lot of support from my employer, and in particular my manager. It is ensured that i recieve my 25% uni work each week, and she constantly checks in with me to make sure my workload is not overwhelming. I keep track of everything i do and my team also supports me.

I do not recieve a large amount of support from my training provider. My apprenticeship advisor in the past have been awful and not attended meetings or replied to emails, but my current one is great and that has made a difference. It is hard to contact tutors unless you email multiple times, and there is no regular calls or seminars with them.

I feel that my qualification is necessary for my role, but only some of it helps me perform in my role. The modules that are entirely lab based or experiment based are irrelevant in an office based role. This makes it a lot more difficult to complete these modules without this background. Those modules that are clinical focused are a lot more relevant.

There are a few extra curricular activities to be involved in that are ran after or before work and at lunch. I do not attend many as i have a long commute to work and that takes up most of my time. There are more commonly dinners or social meetings that i will be able to attend.

Yes

I would recommend working at Astrazeneca because the benefits are good, the workplace is nice to work in and the teams are supportive and the management team are helpful. I have enjoyed my time in this workplace and there are many opportunities for development in every role. There are a lot of staff promotions and development into new roles.

I would give the advise of knowing how to balance life and work and to have good time management. With this the fast paced workload is much more manageable. I would also recommend that you research the role and the company before applying as the interview is quite extensive and intense.