Digital Technology Degree Apprentice Review

Typically, I will assist teams by modernising their workflow, typically through Power BI. This will involve emailing people, doing powerpoint presentation to senior members or researching the tech behind what I'm doing. As an apprentice I'm given a lot of freedom to experiment and try new things, and if it fails it is seen as a great learning experience. Though some placements can be a little quiet, you can supplement this with uni work, or volunteering to help with other projects.

Yes, before I started the only thing I really knew about IT was software development, and coming into E.ON gave me a whole new insight into the world of IT. Since being at E.ON I've learnt a lot of soft skills, confidence in giving presentations, explaining problems and talking to stakeholders. But you can also learn a lot of skills through the different placements that give you a massive breadth of knowledge in a relatively short time frame.

I enjoy the program, whilst the lack of software development was initially a little disappointing, over time I've realised that there is so much to offer from IT than just development. I would recommend it to anyone looking for an apprenticeship in IT, especially if you want that wider overview or you aren't sure what part of IT you want to go into.

The overall scheme is well structured, it consists of 8, 6 month placements with your final 6 months spent creating something real for E.ON to use. The uni scheme is 2 week blocks each term and you get one day off a week to spend on it, or about 20% of your working week.

I receive a lot of support from my Employer, you typically have a mentor which is someone senior in the business, a buddy who is a senior apprentice, an Early Careers Advisor and your manager. This means that if you have a problem you easily have someone to turn to who can help and support.

The university can have issues at times, however, this changes depending on the module leader. I've had some modules where the attention to detail and the support offered was 10/10, and others where the support has been found somewhat lacking. However, they are taking on board what we say and have been implementing new procedures to try and make the system better, so I've given them a six out of ten for that but it could soon be higher.

The university is generally behind in terms of what they teach, and they are working to modernise the course to be somewhat more relevant. However, this doesn't necessarily mean what they teach isn't useful, a lot of the time what they speak about can be applied in the workspace, just in a different way.

There is a football team you can join but if you aren't interested in that then no. There are sometimes nights out to go to a restaurant or club about every 3/4 months, but if you don't live in Nottingham then you can't really go, unless you drive.

Yes

I would and have recommended it to friends, as I definitely feel that this experience is superior to just going to uni, if you want to get real work experience, and start a career then an apprenticeship is the way to go, and at E.ON it is great. People are constantly there to support you and you are given every opportunity possible to suceed.

I would definitely say learn about what we aim for, and how we aim for it. A real edge as well would be to research the Energy Industry as a whole and understand where it is going and why, not just from an environmental perspective, but also from a technological perspective as well.