Pensions Assistant Apprentice Review

I help with the administration of the pensions schemes within the university to ensure they are run successfully and in line with the scheme rules. I deal with all the new starters as well as the leavers as well as being the person who lets members know who to call when they have a concern

My excel and word skills have developed massively, I am now able to confidently do Vlookups as well as many other complicated excel processes that I couldn’t do before. I have also developed my social skills through talking to clients on the phone as well as attending meetings with many employees within the hniversity

I thoroughly enjoy learning about pensions and the complexities of the pensions world. I am enjoying doing assignments about pensions because the content I am learning is interesting and also relevant to my day to day work which makes it even more enjoyable. The only slight downside is the programme took ages to start due to issues with my provider

To start with the programme wasn’t structured well at all, it took nearly 4 months for me to find out about my course and when the college work was starting however since the college work started it has been very well organised and structured in a way that makes it easy to do assignments

I receive an immense amount of support from my employer. My manager is very supportive of my studies and always checking in to ensure my college is going alright and ensure I am not faking behind. I also have other colleagues within the finance division supporting me as another level of support that isn’t within my team incase I have issues within my team

My training provider is fairly supportive with regards to my qualification. My skills coach will help me by proofreading some of my assignments to ensure the assignment has been done correctly as well as worded properly. However sometimes there is a delay in receiving any feedback on my assignment which occasionally causes problems with it.

The qualification is definitely helping me perform my role better because once I have learnt the content I am then using it to train myself on how the content relates to my job role. This then helps me perform better in the role because I am learning new parts of the role.

Within the apprenticeship there are many activities. One of them is the apprentice ambassador team which is a group of apprentices who go to different careers events and promote the apprenticeships within the university. There is also an apprenticeship network group who meet up every 6 weeks or so to talk with other apprentices about how the apprenticeship is going and any support that is needed

Yes

There are 90+ apprenticeships within the university and they offer the highest salary for apprenticeships within Oxfordshire. The support levels are very high and the amount of apprentices are growing rapidly with more and more people joking as apprentices or even going from existing roles to an apprentice to further their career.

Focus on the off the job training from the start of the apprenticeship to make sure you don’t fall behind as it is hard to catch up. If studying at university isn’t the option for you I’d definitely consider doing an apprenticeship to get the on the job experience whilst also getting a qualification.