Apprentice - Business Support Review

I am part of the SRE team and I'm involved in testing common service apis. From a day-to-day basis, I would attend daily calls with my team where we would update the scrum master on our tasks, and I would carry out component testing and migration testing.

My social skills have definitely developed as I have had to communicate with a wide range of new people. My problem solving skills have also increased as I have to figure out why a test isn't working. My technical skills have seen a big increase.

I thoroughly enjoy my program. I came to BT with an open mind and wanted to learn a wide variety of different things. I think it's insightful to see just what goes into making a working api and how the maintenance of it happens.

I believe it is well structured. We are required to have 20% off-the-job training a week, which we are given as one day of study and four days of work. It allows me to have the time to learn new things, through my university degree or independent learning

My employer is very supportive. When we need help with things there is always someone there to lend a hand. We always have a point of contact that will give us help when doing our work, and they are very understanding when it comes to study time for exams.

Our training provider offers us a studies advisor who we can have contact with when needed. My studies advisor has reached out each semester to check in with us on how our assessments are going, if we need any additional help, and to see how we are in general.

As the modules I am taking are level 4 modules they cover the fundamentals of computer systems. I do believe these are important for the computing industry as they provide the basics I would need to be aware of when working with IT.

There is a group in my workplace that organises events for the whole department such as a Christmas dinner and sports day. There are also opportunities to share your experience with people who could potentially be looking to get into the computing industry themselves.

Yes

I have learned so many things in the 8 months that I have been working there. I was made to feel like there was support available from day 1, and there are always different opportunities being made available to you. They support independent learning and you as an individual.

Have an open mind as to what you might be involved in. When I applied to the software engineering apprenticeship I thought I was going to be coding all day. There are so many other things that go into how software is made and how it works that are important.