Business Apprentice Review

I am a business apprentice and some of my daily tasks can vary depending on what department I am currently in. At the moment I am in the Project Office and this is where we manage the projects within Selex. Whilst working in the Project Office I have attended customer meetings, completed pricing forms to bill the customer, manage the products needs for example chasing the engineer to inform the customer what status the product is at. Some of the other tasks I have completed during the Project Office have been spread across Microsoft Excel analysing data and on SAP our work system, closing down hours for projects and allocating them. Some of these tasks were reported back to High Level Management.

I have developed my management, time, communication skills whilst in the Project Office. Two skills I have gained whilst working at Selex is managing different people's characters as most people are different to work with and this can affect your work. Second being able to understand my objective as I recently completed this task and it took a lot longer to complete because I did too much work rather than working towards the objective which was set. I am currently working towards completing the training courses below to increase my chance of becoming a Team Leader in the future. -30 ways to make more time -Assert yourself -Body language -I wasn't prepared for that -Meetings bloody meetings -Performance review every appraises dream -Performance review every managers nightmare -The dreaded appraised -Performance matters, the need for constructive criticism -Leadership management mix -Coach and skills for line managers All of these training courses are provided online for free by the company.

I am really enjoying the Business apprenticeship at Selex ES, the team is great, I have met some awesome people. They are always willing to help with your work and give you training within their role. The work which is provided is helping me improve my current skill set and also helping me gain new skills. I had high expectations of Selex because my friend form secondary school also works for Selex and he told me how good the company is. My expectations were met and everything my friend told me about the apprenticeship was true.

I feel really valued at Selex, when you think off an apprenticeship you think that you'd get all the horrible work no one wants to do but at Selex they give you great work and make you feel part of the team by completing important tasks. Selex also value great work shown and I was given an award for recognising excellence because I lead the Sons and Daughters to Work Day.

My programme is well organised, I was given an induction at our Luton site where presentations were held and I am also visiting RAF Coningsby one of our sites where we will get a tour of the products we sell and meet some of the pilots who fly the planes. The support is great, everyone is willing to help and give you advice towards the tasks I am completing. They treat you like a normal employee not an apprentice. I have regular fortnightly NVQ meetings to get support with any of the work I am struggling with which is also great as it keeps me up to date with my NVQ. Our line managers are always supportive when I ask for some dedicated time to work on my NVQ within the workplace.

I receive great support from my learning provide as I have fortnightly meetings for my NVQ where we can get advice on pieces of work we are struggling with. We also have a NVQ meeting where everyone doing an NVQ comes together and discuss any problems they are having and NVQ assessors also attend. Everyone in the work place is supportive and willing to help.

I receive great support from my line manager within my placements and the team within my placement. If I am having any problems they encourage me to come and ask for help as they say 'no question is a silly question'.

Considering I am only 20 years old and live at Home with my parents my Salary meets my expenses and also helps me save a lot of money.

There are many opportunities outside of work as I am a STEM ambassador I support local science/engineering events or encourage students to look for a career within engineering. For example I am a team member of the rampaging chariots and which gets involved with schools to build a mini robot car to compete in some competitions we hold at our workplace on a weekend. The Project Office always go out on monthly activities to build up out team relationship.

Yes

I would recommend Selex to a friend because it has helped me improve/gain new skills, working towards a Level 3 diploma business administration NVQ and hopefully getting funded for a Higher National Certificate and hopefully pushed on towards my Bachelors in Business. Apart from all the great skills I am learning and further education I am gaining the salary at Selex ES is great and it's helping me save towards a house.

I would tell anyone applying for Selex to research into the company (products, values and history) because that is rated highly within the interview process. I would also recommend not to be shy within the group activity which is held and just give it your all to sell yourself and show your attributes.