Senior Investigator Review

Reviewing and investigating cases of malpractice (actual or alleged) by schools, colleges, training providers and teachers. This involves communicating with a number of stakeholders and regulators, knowing what evidence to request and being able to thoroughly review this in order to make a confident and accurate decision regarding impact. This can also involve liaising with colleagues, escalating and managing risks, and ensuring compliance with regulations.

During my CMDA, I was given the opportunity to manage a large-scale business critical project that I subsequently used for my EPA Project. Through this project, I was able to bring together and implement the various skills I had learned during my Apprenticeship, including the management of budget, risk, stakeholders, time, and people, as well as project management.

The programme was interesting in terms of giving a broad overview of numerous business and management topics, although greater freedom in being able to choose some of the modules/specialisms to better fit in with career aspirations would have been welcomed. It was enjoyable to carry out self-managed research projects that could relate directly to my workplace, job, and interests, and which allowed me to put skills and knowledge learned into practice.

The structure was good in that year 1 featured introductory modules that were then built upon in later years. The presence of self-managed and/or research modules in most terms was also welcomed as it allowed for more independent and autonomous study and for me to pursue topics that were of interest to me. In the third year, the delivery pattern changed from two modules per term to three, and it's noted that this was very overwhelming and led to increased stress and mental health concerns.

My employer were incredibly supportive. My line managers (which changed halfway through my CMDA) were both incredibly supportive, regularly checking in to see how things were going, whether I needed more time and/or support to focus on my CMDA, and both taking a genuine interest in my studies. I also received support through the internal Apprenticeship team, who supported my progress, meetings with my provider, and afforded me networking opportunities to meet other Apprentices.

A number of support channels were available from my training provider, although I didn't use most of these, instead preferring to lean on the support offered by my employer. More information in third year regarding the upcoming EPA would have been appreciated, but my academic mentor from the university was incredibly supportive and helpful, and invaluable to me!

My qualification developed a number of my skills, including those related to people management, time management, organisation, risk management, project management, as well as a more general understanding of numerous business topics. The qualification has also given me more confidence in general and helped to finetune my future career aspirations.

The Apprenticeship team offers so many extracurricular activities for Apprentices to get involved in. I have since become an Apprentice Ambassador, which allows me to attend conferences and events related to Apprenticeships, network with other Apprentices and Ambassadors, but also to visit schools and sixth forms to talk to learners and support them with learning about their future learning options, all of which has been incredibly rewarding.

Yes

The organisation has a very inclusive culture in which a genuine interest and emphasis is placed on investing in staff and helping them learn, develop and grow - it is not just superficial. The people at the organisation really do have a tangible impact on the organisational culture, making it such a friendly, welcoming and safe place to work, especially for someone from an underrepresented group (such as myself).

Definitely to find out about the various DEI and L&D opportunities available to employees beforehand, so that they can hit the ground running when they start at the company in terms of incorporating extracurricular activities into their job role, which in turn will make them a more attractive employee, but also instil greater satisfaction and a sense of reward in them.