Quality Engineer Apprentice Review

My day to day usually consists of a meeting with my team every morning to discuss what we are going to be working on and any blockers we are experiencing. Afterwards I collaborate with my team and work together to execute tests on specific pieces of software to ensure they work the way they are supposed to and find any defects and report them.

My team work and collaboration has improved as it’s something I do every day. I have become more confident in presenting and reaching out to those around me for support with my testing. I had no experience working in tech with software before this job so I had no clue what I was signing up for but it’s been such a great experience. Everyone is so supportive in getting you involved, this helped me pick up these transferable and topic specific skills really fast.

I love it. It’s hands on and there’s so much opportunity to get involved but at the same time there’s a really good balance with apprenticeship learning too. At the moment I spend 7 hours per week dedicated to apprenticeship learning, this includes things like preparing for training courses we are going to go on, additional learning about what a software tester is and the entire process etc. As I said, I was a complete beginner when I started and I’ve been here nearly 6 months and the amount I’ve learned so far has been mind blowing. I did a degree in sport before this course and wish I’d started an apprenticeship sooner because the learning style is so hands on but you also get the time to spend on completing your work for the apprenticeship. Best decision ever.

I think it’s quite organised, from the get go you are told about how you will be assessed through the apprenticeship and what skills you need to have developed in order to pass. There are scheduled training courses for you to attend and you have regular meetings with your mentor to discuss your progress. The best thing I did was show my manager the list of skills, behaviours and knowledge I need to know and have evidenced in my portfolio for my daily work. 20% of your time is allocated to apprenticeship learning per week and the rest is dedicated to your workload, the important thing to focus on is ensuring you are able to link the daily work you are doing to a knowledge, skill or behaviour you have to meet.

Loads. They’re great, so many different communities that you can get involved in straight away to learn about the company, their values and what their goal is. I have a manager, an in work mentor, an apprenticeship mentor, an allocated apprentice ‘buddy’ who has recently completed their apprenticeship and of course all the other apprentices that joined at the same time as me. All my team are so supportive, and if there’s something you want to explore or understand better, there will always be someone there to help you achieve that.

So, the end goal is to graduate from the apprenticeship, but during the course there’s the opportunity to attend fully funded additional courses and if passed successfully you can gain extra qualifications as well as the apprenticeship so it’s a win win really. These additional courses also go hand in hand with the apprenticeship and support your understanding in how to be the best software tester you can be.

10000%, this apprenticeship requires me to be exposed to so many different areas of the testing world and the software development lifecycle - I will become a very rounded tester and believe I will be confident and efficient enough to go for a promotion after this apprenticeship has finished.

There’s all sorts, there’s so many different communities you can join and interact with. My team regularly go on a walk at lunch time once a week so we can spend time getting to know eachother. We also book things out of work to do. In addition, I attended my first professional networking event this week at a Women in Tech conference, this was an amazing opportunity and I’ll definitely be looking at getting booked in for more events in the future. Not sure about sports teams or anything like that but I’m sure there will be something! We have like an internal facebook where people can engage with others and so many different communities. There will be something for everyone. There’s loads and loads of volunteering opportunities, like the apprenticeship ambassador network which is easy to sign up for and loads of events to get involved with!

Yes

Inclusive, diverse place to work. Friendly teams and great values. I love working as part of a team and to be able to gain and develop a completely new set of skills and get paid good money for doing so, its a no brainer - never considered a job in tech until I came across this apprenticeship and it’s the best thing I’ve ever done for my career. I love it here.

Be yourself, as cliche as it sounds, that’s what they want! Learn about the banks values and what they mean to us and be prepared to learn; it is fun but it’s not easy. Be passionate and don’t overthink anything, it’s a long application process but it’s exciting to express to others why you want to work for the bank! You can do it!