Executive Assistant Review

Diary management for 2 Executive Directors and the Chief of Staff . Business support to various committees. Management of the admin team within the department including recruitment, induction, appraisal and performance management. Absence and extra hours recording for the department. Procurement including office supplies and travel/accomodation. General office management. Drafting reports for board meetings.

Gained confidence with people management having never had formal training before. New skills developed in project management and financial management. Learnt theories to underpin existing practice. Became far more reflective and sought more feedback as the apprenticeship went on. A ot of the HR related content I knew from a previous role.

I enjoy gaining knowledge and learning new skills and seeing how this impacts on my ability to carry out my job. I found it challenging to balance the demands of my role and particularly the need to be reactive to senior leaders with finding time for assignments and other learning. This aspect could at time be stressful.

There were regular workshops which fed into the assignments. I didn't understand why the presentation skills was the last workshop as this would have been so useful at the start to better prepare me for the professional discussions. The workbooks weren't shared until about four months into the programme and they would have been useful for early assignments.

My line manager attended meetings with my tutor and we discussed my progress in our monthly 1to1s. She made some suggestions regarding work shadowing. There are lots of online training resources which I was able to utilise to supplement my learning. It was suggested that I protect time each week for my apprenticeship but the nature of my role made that difficult.

Regular meetings with my tutor. My tutor changed mid-way through the apprenticeship and I found my second tutor Mark Forsyth gave me a far greater level of support in both terms of content of our sessions and timely feedback on assignments. The first tutor Jewel Cole only provided feedback in the 24 hours before the session and it often felt like it had been "cut and paste" from a bank of stock phrases.

Some aspects of the qualification, particularly, relating to team leadership have helped me to perform in my role. However, my position has limited exposure to either project management and financial management so these particular modules will not have much of an impact until I move into a different role. I think the qualification will help me gain a new role more akin to my career aspirations.

Our department has regular social meetings and these are arranged on an ad-hoc basis. There are a number of professional networks including one for Admin & Clerical staff and I have attended events. I expect there is more than I know about as some of these opportunities are not always as well signposted as they might be.

Yes

Great place to work. Staff wellbeing is not just something which is talked about but I feel it permeates everything that happens. Much focus is given to the Trust values - kind, collaborative, aspirational, expert. There are many development and training opportunities. Probably only downside is the aged buildings across all sites.

Make sure you have the time properly protected in your working week to fully concentrate on the apprenticeship. I was doing the role before I started my apprenticeship and continued with all my responsibilities throughout. Make use of the resources on the Intranet and Learn portal - there is so much there. Carry out profesional discussions, etc, at home - there are too many iteruptions in the office.