Digital Degree Apprenticeship Review

For my year placement between years 2 and 3 of University, I have worked as an analytics implementation specialist for Vodafone. The purpose of this role is to implement data tracking tools on the Vodafone website and app to ensure the best data is available for analysis. Day to day tasks include meeting with stakeholders, reviewing tracking specs, working with tag management tools, debugging and a wide variety of other responsibilities.

I have learnt many new skills in my role. Firstly, my business acumen has gone from knowing virtually nothing about what it is like to work in a professional environment for a big company, to being very comfortable in the team and having business and stakeholder management skills. I have also further developed my existing technical skills, as my role offers the chance to practice this skills reguarly.

I enjoy my programme a lot. One of the reasons for this is because of the structure, so that during my time at university I have no work commitments, so I am able to fully focus on uni and enjoy the lifestyle as well. Likewise, at work I have very few duties regarding university, helping me to fully embed myself into the role.

The structure of my program works very well. The university and work aspects are completely separate, allowing me to focus entirely on whichever part I am working on at the time. The one part which I don't think is well organised is the apprenticeship requirements from the university, as we receive very sparse communications and the instructions for logging off the job hours have changed many times over the last few years.

At the start of the programme, there was an immense amount of support from Vodafone. We had regular communications and zoom meetings, and were given several points of contact. Now 3 years in this has decreased significantly, where I now only have 3 short meetings per year. The teams I have worked with on my placements have been extremely welcoming and supporting, really taking time to help me settle into the roles.

The University has provided a varying range of support throughout my two years of study them, this tends to vary widely from depending on the module. Some modules are very interactive and you will have lots of office hours, lab sessions and teams support channels. Others do not help out so much and leave you to get on with it more.

The technical skills I have learned and developed are the ones I use most in my role. Specifically, my coding skills have come in handy as I have had to write a fair but of Javascript in my role. On the other hand, some of the more theoretical modules haven't been relevant at all to my role.

At Vodafone, there is a lot of effort made to get people involved outside of the working hours. All employees are given 3 days paid charity leave every year. There is an annual 5k run, an annual sports day and other such events. Also, there are regular networking events where you can meet lots of people.

Yes

Vodafone has just ranked #9 in the best place to work UK category. They offer very generous holiday packages, and although this doesn't apply to me their maternity and paternity schemes are also very generous. In general, they are very flexible and try to accommodate your needs. They are also a very diverse company, from a gender and racial perspective.

My advice would be to put in the time and effort in an application to Vodafone. Do some research so that you are able to impress in an interview, and this helps you to come across as passionate about the industry. Most of all, show plenty of enthusiasm and that you are willing to work hard as there is a good culture of this in Vodafone.