Project Control Professional Apprentice Review

My day to day role includes monitoring spend, controlling risks, and engaging with project managers on their projects. I, the project controller, am responsible for providing accurate project data to the project team to allow for well informed decisions to be made. I am also responsible for ensuring that all decisions that are made are in line with governance standards set by the business.

I have had to learn a lot of Excel skills as pretty much everything you do as a project controller is managed somewhere by an Excel spreadsheet. As well as this, there is a lot of specialist project control software that you are able to learn and be competent in. In addition, I have been able to develop my communication sand problem solving skills when working through challenge areas on projects.

I do enjoy my programme, especially the placement-side as you're able to put the knowledge and skills you learn at university into real-life practice. However, I sometimes wish that the work was more challenging as in first year it has been quite basic work. I am hoping that as I have more experience I have the opportunity to deal with challenging work.

As the programme has only been running for 2 years, there are still a lot of areas that can be improved.

We receive a lot of valuable support from our employer and the apprenticeship development leads, they work extremely hard to ensure that we receive lots of opportunities to develop our skills, knowledge and behaviours. Everyone I have met in the business and at university are keen for you to ask questions and receive the training and development you need to flourish.

Tutors are easily contactable by email if you need support, and most offer one-to-ones on assignments if you request one. However, a lot of lessons are online which makes me feel quite distant from tutors. BAE Systems are very close with their training providers, so we have spoken to development leads to request more in-person lessons and they have all been very willing to help and support us.

As a first year, university has been very good for providing a basis to the theoretical side of the apprenticeship. We also had to conduct our own group project, which was really useful learning as you could see a vast way of how the project could be approached and have the freedom to try new methods of working that you may not have working on a real life project.

There are a lot of networking opportunities provided, our cohort often get asked to go into the ASK at Samlesbury for training and development sessions which helps with the social aspect of the apprenticeship. There are also a wide range of business resource groups that you can get involved in if you wish, and, in my placement there have been Christmas dos, recognition events and away days that you can attend. However, the type and numbers of employee events throughout the year will be dependent on the team you are in.

Yes

BAE Systems continuously offer high quality training opportunities to their employees, and are very keen to support your development as an apprentice. They offer a very generous salary to boost the start of your career, flexible working (including hybrid working and flexi time) to allow for a healthy work-life balance, and generous holidays.

Make sure to do some background research into the company, looking at the role you are applying for and its purpose for the company. Look at the skills you have developed so far in your career, and think of how they could apply for that role. Remember, the purpose of the apprenticeship is to provide you will all of the skills, knowledge and behaviours you need to be a professional in that area, so do not worry if your current skills do not directly match what is required of the end job role. Instead, think about how your current skills and perspectives could potentially benefit the role.