Pensions Technician Review

My job role at the current Grade involves calculation of retirement benefits, dealing with deaths of pensioners, answering telephone calls and responding to emails, leasing with employers in the process of pension administration, along with other ad hoc activities. I did start the apprenticeship as an Assistant Pensions Technician however, which involved more admin related duties and triaging of calls and emails and basic level benefit calculations.

I have learnt many new skills, as my employer is keen on career progression and has supported me throughout my journey. As mentioned, I started as an Assistant Pension Technician, and during the span of the apprenticeship, I moved on to being an Associate Pensions technician and finally a Pensions Technician, which included training and developing skills.

I began this apprenticeship with the understanding that I would be doing a CIPP administered qualification. Unfortunately, due to CIPP not offering the qualification I wanted, I was moved to the APE qualification which I found to be less relevant to my role and not as enjoyable as I had hoped. Other than the qualification element, the rest of the apprenticeship was enjoyable.

As mentioned above, I had a qualification element and an apprenticeship element. The qualification element was poorly structured, with no clarity in how it would be delivered and what was expected of me. The apprenticeship element was very very well structured however, and my tutor from the Growth Company (Andrea) went above and beyond her expected duties to ensure I could complete my apprenticeship as seamlessly as possible under the circumstances.

My employer has provided me with excellent support during the completion of the apprenticeship. My manager has been on hand to answer any queries and assist with any tasks that I needed help with. They have also been flexible and considerate when assigning me tasks to fit around my apprenticeship schedule, and has provided me with plenty of training opportunities to increase my knowledge

Unfortunately the qualification element is the only area that I lacked support from the training provider. I had a separate inhouse trainer for the APE qualification and while the 1-1 training sessions were interesting, the qualification itself was poorly organised, with lack of timely information, cancelled exams, delayed responses etc. My main tutor from the training provider did try to mitigate negative impacts as much as possible however, sometimes even at a personal cost to them, which I hugely appreciate.

The apprenticeship itself increased my general pensions knowledge, which helped me situate my own role in the wider pension scene and help me understand member queries better when providing customer service. The assignments also prompted me to ask why I was doing each task, which helped me better understand the importance of my day to day tasks.

The team at the Cheshire Pension Fund is very friendly and welcoming, and there are away days and after-work meet ups to better integrate into the team. At a wider-council level, there are plenty of interest based groups that organise events, such as running clubs, LGBTQ+ networking group etc that you can join.

Yes

This is a very supportive and welcoming work environment where they care about your work-life balance, mental health and overall well being. Flexible working and home-working is offered wherever possible. From personal experience, managers are very understanding of your personal situations, working preferences etc and will try their best to accommodate your needs where possible.

The council is an inclusive employer, and cares about the values it projects, including through all of its employees. Research the values and aims of the council in addition to the specifications of the role you are applying for, as they will be looking for any potential candidate to meet these.