1st Line IT Team Leader Review

My role as an 1st Line IT Support Analyst is to monitor, assist and support my 1st line team in the jobs. This includes setting them targets and projects, ensuring they are completing their day to day tasks, communicating with end users effectively, and keep track of any issues that may occur. Currently my team all have set projects to complete in a certain time frame so that it makes our working life smoother and things like new starters etc completely at a high standard.

I have developed on my existing skills of communication. I have gained more confidence in myself and my ability to lead a group of staff. I have learnt how to be understanding, take on board other peoples opinions and ideas too. I have also developed more skills on project planning in terms of ensuring deadlines are met.

I enjoyed my team leader apprenticeship as it gain me a good insight into the different areas on how to be a good manager. Not only this, but how to deal with conflicts effectively, different ways to communicate with my team - including different approaches. It also enabled me to find different ways to delegate workload and how i would go about training etc within the team.

The structure of the apprenticeship that I was on was good. There was lots of different workshops to go on that helped with completing the course and also gaining more knowledge and experience in my team leader job role. There was lots of one-to-one meetings with your tutor and targets were set each time so that you had something to work towards. It was also helpful that you could keep track of how you were doing and if you was ahead/behind target.

I received good support by my managers when needing to complete my apprenticeship. As I had my offjob hours that needed to be completed, I had support in taking some time within work hours to complete my course work. When there was different tasks that needed to be completed that meant I had to show something, my managers would include me to be able to pass those tasks. Such as, running meetings, delagating projects and tasks. HR was good too as when i had some areas of the business I didnt really know about, they provided and helped me with information.

I had a lot of support from my training provider. I had one-to-one monthly meetings where my trainer gave me new targets to complete for the following month. We would then catch up on what I did well and what I could have improved on. However, as i went on maternity leave half way through, when I came back the criteria and trainee had changed - leaving me stuck for a month or 2. But this was quickly sorted and I was back on track again. The trainer i had, Natalie, was brilliant. She gave me good support when I needed it and helped me where I was going wrong. When it came down to the end point assessment, Natalie pointed me in the direction of another provider who pointed out things i needed to change/add - this was really helpful and left me at ease for my end point assessment.

I believe the qualification through my provider has helped me perform better as it gave me more insight on how to be a better team leader. It provided me with lots of information on different ways to communicate depending on the setting that I was in. It also provided me information on conflicts - as we rarely have conflicts, i never had to experience it. The overall apprenticeship developed my existing skills as well as gaining new knowledge and skills for my job role.

There are no extra-curricular activities that go on at our workplace to get involved in.

Yes

The company as a whole is great - staff are friendly and the workplace as a whole is safe and a great environment to be in. There is a lot of progression within the company and a lot of support for training - such as apprenticeships like myself.

I would say to look up the company and the different areas so that you have some knowledge and understanding of the company - it is a big company and can be daunting. I would say be openminded regarding the job role - if for example it was a bit of a downgrade to your current role, there is training and there is progression in the company.