HR graduate Review
at BT Group
Higher Level Apprenticeship
Business Operations
Newgate St, London EC1A 7AJ, UK
Review Submitted: January 2022
Overall Rating
1.1 /5
The Overall Rating is the average of all the ratings given in each category. We take those individual ratings and combine them into one final score!
1/5
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Overview of Role
1/5
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Skills Development
1.6/5
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Structure and Support
Overview of Role
Please give an overview of your role and what this involves on a day-to-day basis:
1/5
Awful service. A complete lack of proactivity on behalf of the training development officers- my TDO changed part way through my apprenticeship and it took months for them to catch up with overdue tasks. There is no value added from the apprenticeship- merely a tick box exercise. So many tasks which people with full time roles are expected to complete which do not add any value to your role, are extremely basic reflective/research activities which no one seems to care about... the TDOs are clearly all overwhelmed. My current one is extremely difficult to reach, is always late to our meetings, does not live up to her promises (eg saying she would catch up on my previous TDO's overdue tasks as promptly as possible but took months of chasing to resolve). It is not clear how you can raise concerns about the provider, it seems as though they make it as difficult as possible to reach. I would like to be able to raise my concerns and complaints to a point of contact /person that I am aware of, because clearly giving feedback to TDOs does not get fed back into the service provider. I could not recommend this provider any less
To what extent do you enjoy your programme?
1/5
Completely unenjoyable. The apprenticeship programme is merely a tick box task so companies can get their levy to fund apprenticeships and for apprenticeship providers to take their learner's money/time without actually adding value. The system they use to upload tasks is so frustrating, complex and difficult to use, it's a pain to complete all tasks during the programme. I dread having to complete apprenticeship tasks.
Skills Development
Have you learnt any new skills or developed existing skills?
1/5
very few. the knowledge i have built has mainly been from the CIPD (HR qualificaiton body) assignments, which are already very basic. The provider is unable to provide quality service- particularly for people with prior qualifications. As someone with a master's university degree, the apprenticeship team is completely unable to offer feedback which is valuable (Eg I get feedback regarding the font of my slides or that I provided the right amount of detail, a few weeks ago I received the following feedback 'you could provide more detail about [X]... think about detail like seasoning, you need to add some to your dish to get more flavour).... the 'feedback' we get from TDOs is non existent to laughable and honestly insulting. We are made to upload our CV so they can supposedly 'tailor' their service/ the way they deliver content to our background and experience levels but this is clearly not true. The reflective tasks which supposedly help you build your skills are nothing more than endless time consuming tasks, far too basic to teach you anything. All the onus is placed on the trainee/apprentice to carry out research work etc without the TDOs being able to help you develop your skills. The very little value I have got out of them has been from the workshops, which on the whole have been very poor, but for one of them we learned about HR employment law which was somewhat helpful.
Structure and Support
How well organised/structured is your programme?
1/5
Awful. As previously said, there is so little added value. The programme would be more useful if it focused on helping trainees with their degree, for example by tailoring the workshops and tasks around the degree's assignments. For example, for HR/CIPD assignments the workshops delivered by the training development officers could focus around brainstorming ideas of what you could include in your essay, sources you could look at... ie helping learners start and progress with their assignment rather than making them sit through 6h of dull content. The exercises in webinars /workshops are also extremely basic and unnecessarily long. The level of the programme /content feels like content 14 year olds could complete. There are far too many tasks expected from learners, many of whom are in full time roles- making them complete endless pedantic tasks which add no value to their degree is wholly unnecessary and makes the whole experience so unenjoyable.
How much support do you receive from your employer?
3/5
I receive support of terms of being given a lot of freedom as to when and how I complete my apprenticeship/qualification role. Should I need real life/ work experience to draw on for my assignments, I have been able to ask someone in the business who helps me with personal development attend the right type of meeting/ acquire knowledge to complete my assignment task.
How much support do you receive from your training provider when working towards your qualifications?
1/5
Very little. When asked for help about some of my earlier assignments, where I was not sure what level of detail / what type of sources to use, the TDO/ training provider offered such little help. I was told repeatedly about basic resources like google scholar when the training provider had already been aware some of us , mysefl included, had university degrees and were already aware of this resource- the training provider was unable to help with finding / suggesting the specific type of resource needed for my assignment. Other people in my cohort, not least within my organisation, are all frustrated with the level of service provided by Realise and our TDOs. The tasks given by the TDO/training provider merely feel like unnecessary extra work and do not help us with our qualifications.
How well do you feel that your qualification (through your training provider) helps you to perform better in your role?
1/5
Not at all. Again, the content delivered by the provider is far too basic. If anything, it feels like it hinders me in my role given how much time that it takes to complete tasks. The only value I get is from the work I put into my qualification and other tasks, and the reflections I have about my own learnings (Eg by attending various work calls/ taking on extra tasks/ attending knowledge calls etc to enhance my HR/ business knowledge). The learnings from my qualification (CIPD level 5) comes from the work I put into my assignments, namely the research I carry out. The 'e learning content' provided by the provider ICS is very basic, the feedback I receive for my assignments is laughable (Copy pasted, every time the same comments 'good use of headings' etc).
Are there extra-curricular activities to get involved in at your work? (For example, any social activities, sports teams, or even professional networking events.)
2/5
technically yes. There are graduate programme activities which are social/ fundraising activities etc.. I have participated in an online book club for BT graduates which was fun but is sadly over. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, most of the social activities were turned into online meetings which quickly became uninteresting the 'fun' and social side of the graduate programme is relatively non existent at the moment.
Recommendations & Advice
Would you recommend BT Group to a friend?
Yes
Why?
Because it's a very supportive, friendly company which has a healthy view on work-life balance and trusts its employees (At least i feel very independent trusted and my views /wellbeing are valued). However, in terms of career development opportunities, career progression seems very slow, the salary is not competitive after you roll off the grad scheme unlike other big companies and more needs to be done to accelerate the careers of grads/ young employees who have potential, are interested in developing themselves and are ambitious. There is not enough support for grads at the moment in terms of how they can develop their careers, particularly after the graduate scheme- you seem to roll off into a role of the same level, which seems like a step backwards and is the polar opposite of what happens at other large companies, with minimal salary change.
What tips or advice would you give to others applying to BT Group?
Look at the values of BT, read reports articles to find out what BT values- eg doing good in your community, simplifying processes etc... and find examples of how you can demonstrate this from your own experience. A lot of the interview questions were quite similar to other ones I got for the video interview, and for the assessment centre, you just need to be able to show that you are a team player and can think on your feet and think about business context/ implications (Eg when given a case study of which product / project to invest in). I would also practice the psychometric tests extensively before completing this step as this is the stage, for many companies, where most people fail or do not pass
