HR Apprentice Review

My experience has been mixed. I am interested in Human Resources as a career path and I really enjoy working in the team I am in, my colleagues are great. On the flip side however, sometimes the work I am given can be a bit dull and very administrative, rather than hands on dealing with employees which I thought I may have been exposed to much more.

I have developed my general understanding of HR although I had hoped to learn more and have a more in-depth understanding of my area of HR and the other functions i.e. recruitment, ER. I have however developed my ability using IT applications I.e. Excel and Visio.

I enjoy working in the team I am in but I find the work I get quite dull a lot of the time and not as practical as I thought it might have been at the beginning of the apprenticeship. I suppose I would have enjoyed it more if I felt the workload I was receiving was more relevant to someone hoping to learn and develop their understanding and skills.

It is okay. The board providing the apprenticeship are good and I enjoy the sessions, however, I would like them to help my learning and give my programme a bit more structure. My team give me work to do but it feels fairly ad hoc based and there was no learning plan created prior to me joining the company which my tutor said there really should have been.

My team are very welcoming and are always happy to help and answer any queries I may have. As well as this, the L and D team at the company are great and provide early careers programmes for apprentices and interns to get involved in. Employees are kind and welcoming and never have a problem if and when one of my managers asks them if it is okay for me to sit in on a confidential meeting to enhance my development.

I know that the support I need is there and my tutor is lovely but I have never felt the need to fall back on their support. The sessions the apprenticeship board provide are really good and there is always time left at the end for questions, more detail on tasks or a private one to one chat which I know other apprentices in my sessions have used.

I really enjoy the sessions and I think the lady who provides them is brilliant, but sometimes I think that the work we do is fairly unrelatable to the work I am given on a day to day basis. I understand that sometimes transferable skills and knowledge are useful in my field, but often I find the work is not that relevant. With the sessions not being particularly relevant I do not find it helps me too much in my role but I enjoy the sessions nevertheless.

There are events put on at work by different departments i.e. external talks which can be accessed face to face or over Zoom but there are no extra curricular activities such as the ones specified in the question put on for employees at Disney.

No

Although the employees are lovely and I really enjoy working in the team I am in, the work I am given is tedious and does not always feel beneficial to me. The programme does not seem particularly well thought out and there is no structured learning plan in place to develop my learning, I think it would be massively beneficial if all apprentices are given a learning plan when joining the company so they know what they are learning at each stage of the programme.

I would advise that applicants for a role at Disney back their own abilities and write an application which really incorporates their key skills. On top of this I would recommend being enthusiastic and keen to start, expectations are high at the company and an enthusiasm and motivation to get started will come across well in the interview and induction stages.