Rating
- 1. Please give an overview of your role and what this involves on a day-to-day basis:
- 2. Have you learnt any new skills or developed existing skills?
- 3. To what extent do you enjoy your programme?
- 4. How well organised/structured is your programme?
- 5. How much support do you receive from your employer?
- 6. How much support do you receive from your training provider when working towards your qualifications?
- 7. How well do you feel that your qualification (through your training provider) helps you to perform better in your role?
- 8. Are there extra-curricular activities to get involved in at your work? (For example, any social activities, sports teams, or even professional networking events.)
- 9a. Would you recommend Howdens to a friend?
- 9b. Why?
- 10. What tips or advice would you give to others applying to Howdens?
My role at Howdens involves serving customers on the counter, communicating with customers, generating new leads for the business and placing orders. Alongside this I also read through my textbooks and complete workbooks for my coursework. I do marketing calls daily to get new leads and build relationships with customers.
I have become a lot more confident when serving customers and talking to them on the phone. I also have better time management skills from planning out my day to make sure I get all my tasks completed. I learnt how to use all the systems here and improved my stock knowledge.
I enjoyed my programme a lot. I learnt a lot from my colleagues and tutors whilst completing the apprenticeship which helped me to complete my textbooks. I had a lot of support from my managers who gave me plenty of time to do my coursework and helped me to progress in my role.
My course was very well organised. Everything that I was learning was linking into my job so it helped me to progress in my role faster. The structure from the resources given to me also helped as it meant I had more case studies to use for my showcase reports.
I received a lot of support from my employer at work. Whenever I needed time to go and do my coursework he gave me as much as I needed. He got involved with what I was learning so that he could help with anything I needed. they answered any questions that I had.
My training provider was very good with any help I needed. He always responded to emails quickly if I had any questions. He helped me with anything I did not understand and was good in explaining how the end point assessment worked. He provided resources that helped me with my job.
The qualification helped me a lot to perform better in my role. The textbooks and workbooks helped as they explained customer service skills that I could use whilst doing my job everyday in how to speak to customers. It helped me to learn about the different types of customers and how to deal with them.
We have a lot of extra curricular activities to get involved with at work. We have staff nights out, regional go karting races, summer rounders games. We also have many incentives that run every month that we can get involved with. We have multiple team events throughout the year aswell
Yes
I would recommend working at Howdens to someone. You get a lot of support in your depot and outside of the depot from different roles in the company. You are always pushed to progress as much as you can and they will help you however you need. You are also given plenty of training in areas you aren't comfortable with.
Some advice that I would give is to be as confident as you can as you will be dealing with customers daily. Also to be yourself as you are building relationships with customer in person and over the phone. I would say they also have to be willing to learn alot as there is alot of different aspects to their role and the company.
Details
Level 3 Apprenticeship
Marketing
Bedford, Bedfordshire
February 2023