Apprentice Software Engineer Review

I go into the office where my manager and another apprentice work, I have used modelling software, reviewed code, written code for my project. I have a weekly meeting with my tea to discuss progress and a fortnightly meeting with my manager to check everything is going well. Everyone goes to university 4 weeks a year and has an online session once a week to learn the degree content.

I have learnt multiple different coding languages at university and as part of my project. I have become a lot more confident with presenting to groups of people. I have improved my time management and gained an understanding of how a project is run. My communication skills have gotten better, and I have covered lots of interesting content in uni.

I really enjoy my programme, I prefer the professionalism of an office/ working environment to the relaxed nature of uni, I like that I get paid for my work and effort as it makes me feel more valued. Another reason I enjoy it is that everyone is more mature than regular uni students.

My programme is very well structured; 4 times a year we go to university for a week, and once a week excluding holiday periods we do an online university session. On top of that we have once a month apprentice meetings to discuss how everyone is getting on, and we get set a fair amount of assignments given the time we have to complete it.

I receive the right amount of support from my employer; I have a once a week meeting with my project team to discuss problems, progress and next steps. I have a once a fortnight meeting with my manager to discuss what I have been doing and if I need any support. All the apprentices on my site have a once a month meeting to keep up to date.

We have an apprenticeship coach that is specifically there to help us with any problems we have, we have regular one to ones with her and tripartite reviews 4 times a year. Our lecturers put on drop in sessions in case we are struggling with the work being set to us.

My degree is specialised to my job role, it helps me with the technical side of what I am currently doing e.g. maths and coding, and the soft skills side e.g. communication, presentation skills, time management, planning. I can easily apply these to my job role to become a better employee.

There is an apprentice social every month where we will go bowling, do karaoke etc. There are opportunities to attend professional networking events e.g. women's engineering society events, IET events, team dinners for the project you are working on, we go to outward bound centres to do team building activities.

Yes

You get flexi time, competitive salary, supportive working environment, more support than uni, your uni is free, great networking opportunities, you work with likeminded people, 25 days paid holiday, expenses paid for when you go to uni (food and hotel), you can move out without getting in debt, no student loan to pay back.

I would tell someone to make sure they have work experience in the field they are looking to apply for, make sure they are confident in front of a camera for interviews, be able to evidence how they have worked in a team and succeeded in the past, and have a levels in the relevant area.