Assistant Commercial Manager Review

Commercial management of sub-contract packages including procurement (tendering and contract placing), change management (variations), valuations and final accounting. Also involved with the commercial management upstream such as feeding into project cashflow, dealing with change and producing monthly valuations.

I have learnt and developed various skills whilst being an apprentice at Mace whilst on their internal training programme, at university and at work. As I came out of sixth form and had no prior construction experience, I developed the relevant technical skills to be a competent commercial manager including: valuing variations, tendering, compiling contracts, implementing contract mechanisms, managing change, final accounting etc. However I have also had the opportunity to develop a lot of soft skills and gained a lot of confidence by doing presentations, daily interaction with sub-contractors and networking.

The programme is very reqarding and you are well supported throughout it whether that be via your assigned buddy, fellow apprentices, line manager or emerging talent team. I also think the transition from school into the working world, whilst daunting, was made a lot easier because of these support systems. I would say as you progress through the programme, the university work becomes a lot more difficult content wise but also with regards to managing it, given that it coincides with when you have more individual responsibility at work. But once you get the results, you feel a sense of accomplishment.

The internal training programme at Mace is 4 years long. It is well structured, generally during your first year at Mace you have frequent training sessions whether they relate to well-being, soft skills or technical skills. Across the four years you don't repeat any training sessions so they cover a wide range of topics. The frequency of these training sessions tend to tail off as you progress through the programme, however there is plenty of opportunity in the later years of the apprenticeship to sign up for (free) training that you as an individual would find interesting and beneficial to your role. The training also move with your role e.g. in your first year there may be training relating to the 'basics of excel' whereas in the later years some of the training courses cover things like 'leadership and mentoring' or 'career planning'.

In my experience I have been very fortunate to receive a lot of support from Mace, particularly from the emerging talent team and my line managers. They understand that during exam season at university I may require a study day to revise or complete coursework. If there are any issues with university they are always there to step in if required. Mace have also recently established apprentice steering groups made up of apprentices, to help understand and target where apprentices can be better supported.

In my experience, LSBU have not always been the most helpful with regards to supporting students towards their qualifications. There are of course some exceptions like lecturers who are always more than happy to hop on a teams call to discuss coursework out of hours. However generally there have been issues with communication from the university regarding what is required to obtain your professional qualification; where there are tube/train strikes students are expected to find another way in despite having 20% of lectures online around Christmas anyway; and the quality of the teaching is not always the best with a number of lecturers having not worked in industry. Some of the modules that are taught also seem to be outdated when you compare it against what you are doing at work e.g. using the model for quantification is not really taught and instead handwritten take-offs are taught. However overall, whilst more individual study is required, you can still achieve decent results.

Certain modules that are taught at university are helpful when at work such as contract law and contract practice and administration. However a few of the modules are outdated for instance advanced measurement, for this module excel isn't even used, you are expected to hand write take offs rather than using software such as Navisworks or Costex to measure and take off digitally.

This can be quite heavily dependent on the project that you are on. Again speaking on my own experiences I have been fortunate to have quite social projects where we do things such as charity 5-a-side football tournaments, go-karting races on the floor plate and other general networking events such as summer and Christmas parties. As an apprentice there is also the annual 'Emerging Talent Awards' which is a great opportunity to mix with other apprentices and celebrate the achievements of graduates and apprentices over the past year. However other there is not that much opportunity for mixing across business units or projects really.

Yes

There is a lot of opportunity for progression and development at Mace as an apprentice, and achievement is well recognised throughout the company. There is also a great support system here. Mace also work on some incredible projects and so apprentices can work on landmark projects that change London's skyline; some of Mace's projects include the London Eye, Battersea Power Station, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium etc etc. And there is also opportunity to work globally across various continents.

Make sure you have researched Mace to get a feel for the values and behaviours that make up part of the culture here. Also familiarise yourself with the type of projects we work on. Be enthusiastic, ask lots of questions, show an eagerness to challenge the norm and learn new things. Be yourself, Mace strives to be inclusive and everyone should feel that they can be their true self at work.