Business Analyst Review

A Business Analyst who facilitates change within my organisation by engaging with various different stakeholder groups to document and deliver change safely and effectively.

I have developed my confidence to discuss subjects that I am not an expert in with people who are.

I enjoy the work that I am doing as part of my day-job, not so much the apprenticeship work.

The programme is not structured well at all by Firebrand, there were a lot of months at the start of the programme without a designated mentor, the central communications are confusing, long and often unnecessary. The face-to-face courses arranged by Firebrand are not well planned and are extremely intense with more than 400/500 PowerPoint slides to work through in 4 days with an immediate exam to follow (contrary to the advice of the examination body). Some of the instructors however are very good due to ignoring the prescribed content of Firebrand.

My employer is very supportive and always ensures that I am carrying out work that is beneficial to my apprenticeship, they have taken my needs and abilities into consideration by moving me to a more suitable project that is easier to understand and therefore a safer environment for me to learn the skills of a business analyst in.

The support from Firebrand has been very limited and they give the impression that they would just like you to do what you need to, on your own and they can then receive the funds for this. They are an accelerated learning provider but they fail to appreciate that my employer chose them as a provider, not me and therefore accelerated learning does not help.

There is a lot of the content covered by the training provider that is not particularly relevant in the role and organisation type that I work in, however I can see how this information is useful in other organisations. The qualification will also provide us with the opportunity to work with other employers in the future if we choose to.

Rarely as I am a remote colleague who doesn't work near any of the office locations. I know that there is a wide range of activities for colleagues to get involved in who are in more central locations however. There are also a lot of communities that we can join and get involved in digitally.

Yes

Being an employee of Lloyds Banking Group for over 5 years now, I have found them to be a very supportive employer, they could do better to coach and develop some really poor line managers across the organisation however the tools are in place by the Group and therefore it falls down to a lack of local leadership, this however, is quite rare and overall, it is an extremely supporting and positive company to work for and I couldn't recommend them highly enough

It is a great organisation to get involved in with a great purpose and some really inspirational leadership. My advice would be to bring your complete self to the table in any form of assessment and always be honest in your conversations, this will gain the respect of the hiring manager and will stand you in a much better position.