Chartered Management Degree Apprentice Review

Start as a shop floor worker gaining skills and experience to be fast tracked to managerial positions. Will spend the day completing sales assistant task then training or doing university work for the degree. Mixture of early starts and late starts depending on the days job role, opening and closing the store.

Have developed teamworking, communication and conflict resolution skills. We are provided with many workshops, which help self awareness and encourage bettered leadership habits. All of this is during university and workshops outside of the store I work in, the apprenticeship is great outside of the store you work. In store I have been trained in almost all floor level tasks.

I enjoy the lectures, the lecturers are usually very insightful and interesting people, however the length of the lectures and how often I am travelling to Manchester is very draining. I am also travelling around the country a lot, which sounds nice but it is purely for business reasons. Not everything we have learnt is interesting, a lot of it is covered in A level business and economics. We do multiple topics at once, it would be preferred to focus on one thing at once.

The university has structured it well over 4 years, however the business has not; it seems as though the communication between the head office and the stores is not so good and the store managers are less inclined to care about the apprenticeship. The course is well structured but movement and training within the business in stores is not.

Support from the head office has been great, the problem is in store you are treated as a normal colleague and managers tend to forget what your job role is. It is to complete tasks and help the business but also to be taught to be able to help the business in greater ways. I work in one of the largest stores in the country and it means my manager is quite busy, I do not feel as a priority.

The support from the university is great, lecturers are willing to be emailed and answer any questions, with quick responses via email. MMU has a larger variety of resources that prove to be very useful. If support is needed you will receive it, you just have to ask the skills coach or the lecturer.

Helps to understand the business better and where I can improve both the business' processes and my own behaviours. A lot of areas are covered within business, ranging from behavioural aspects of managers and organisations to more analytical or standardly theoretical. It helps me in managerial aspects of my job, however until I am to be promoted I won't be able to use much of what I learn.

Occasionally there will be some sort of celebration, which is organized by one of the store managers. We also will have get togethers with graduates and other apprentices but they are not frequently extra-curricular. But to be honest unless it is a paid day I would rather keep work as work and live outside of it.

Yes

Not necessarily as an apprentice, but if they would like to work here it is a good company to work for; as a student or young person. I advise this apprenticeship to anyone who would either want to be in the retail sector or who would like to gain transferrable skills for other roles.

Do more than just being at school, show initiative, responsibility and any transferrable skills you may have. They care more about you being better suited for the job than your grades at school. To stand out be very sure of yourself and your skills, anything you have done can help you.