SAM Technical apprentice Review

My role includes responding to tickets from customers regarding issues or queries with a platform we provide a managed service for. We organise meetings and collaborate with the support team of the Software to provide the best service we can for the customers. We also host and manage servers for the customers that we work with.

I have become a lot more confident in my abilities to perform my day-to-day role after having worked at Softcat for 6+months as an apprentice. My manager has been really supportive in my development and has pushed me to do my best within the team. I am in the process of developing my management skills as I am taking on more responsibility within the team.

I really enjoy the programme, My manager and team are friendly and supportive. Within my apprenticeship, I have monthly calls with my mentor at the apprenticeship provider and she provides support and practice to help me pass my apprenticeship. Within Softcat, my manager is supportive of my apprenticeship work and helps where he can, as well as providing training courses to assist my daily role.

My programme is fairly well structured. Within my apprenticeship, we have fortnightly group sessions to go through learning which is helpful as we can ask questions. Within my daily role, different members of the team will show me through tickets they are working on to expend my knowledge. In both my apprenticeship and daily role, my learning is self-motivated as I am the only one that will benefit from it, I am not pushed to get it done.

My direct manager is very supportive, he encourages me to do more within my role and will handle escalations so myself and the rest of the team don't have to. My department manager is supportive of all of his staff and wants us to improve so we can continue to provide a better service.

My training mentor does fortnightly group sessions to go through learning and teach the group on certain modules. She also does monthly 1-2-1s to check up on our progress and to go thro0ugh example questions we will be asked in our End Point Assessment. All of the required training is available to us apprentices and any additional learning is voluntary.

My qualification through my apprenticeship provider doesn't really translate into what I do in my daily tasks as it is a very technical role but a business apprenticeship. That being said, it has been good having an idea of how the team I work in contributes to the wider organisation and being able to have a bigger picture of the organisation as a whole.

There are lots. Softcat often has free lunches organised at the Marlow office with different vendors which are always nice. There are half and full year incentives, which are paid for holidays usually lasting around a week. There is also a "Team night out" budget allocated to each team/department to be used as we please. Finally, each quarter there is some sort of "End of Quarter" celebration, usually at a pub with a drinks tab, though the next one is more focused around an activity instead of drinking to be inclusive to those that don't drink.

Yes

The team I work in is very supportive and I know that my fellow apprentices also really get on with their managers and are supported in what they do. There is room to grow upwards in your team or sideways to different teams, which is really attractive to people just starting in the industry who don't know what their final career path might be.

Your knowledge is appreciated but not always required, they look a lot at compatibility as a person and your soft skills, knowledge can be learnt but people skills are a lot harder to teach. Having a good work ethic and time management is crucial to doing well.