Degree Apprentice - HR Review

In my role I complete a wide variety of activities including responding to emails in our shared inbox, recruitment for our programmes, managing relationships with our training providers, carrying out projects relating to spreading awareness externally of our programmes, financial management and cross charging for salaries, generating contracts, and general administration. This means that I have the opportunity to work on different things and expand my breadth of knowledge in different areas.

The University programme is well structured in the sense that we are assigned two modules per year and complete six modules over the course of the apprenticeship which are all interesting and engaging. They consist of weekly activities, tutorials, readings, collaborative exercises, forums, etc.
Within my organisation, there I have a line manager, designated HR team, and apprenticeship programme advisor who I can lean on for support if I have any struggles or concerns with my apprenticeship. The HR team also advise of questions and queries, whilst supporting my learning journey through the additional learning and support sessions that they run throughout the year.

I have weekly check-ins with my line manager to discuss current tasks and jobs to be done, which helps ensure that I keep on track and know my priorities. We also have two team meetings per week to run through activities, seek advice and new ideas from other team members, discuss any blockers and problems were I need additional support. We also keep a team KANBAN board to track all activity, progress and deadlines which help ensure I am progressing my own development.

At the University I have a module tutor, practice tutor, programme delivery manager, and a student support team in place. They ensure that I stay on track with the programme. My module tutor provides feedback on my assignments and advises on how I can improve moving forward. I also meet with my practice tutor quarterly and complete progress reviews. During these I set new goals to work on throughout my apprenticeship and inform my tutor of how I am getting on and any challenges I am facing. My line manager also attends these sessions to give feedback on my performance in role.
If there are any topics or areas that I am particularly struggling with, I am able to ask questions in our tutorials, which are then answered my by the module tutors. My practice tutor has also provided me with additional materials in the past to help me understand concepts and theories better and talks me through anything I am struggling to understand, giving practice examples.

The content and theory that are covered in my apprenticeship have overlap with my organisation and the activities that I complete in my role. I am able to apply my learning to the organisation and in assignments I can write directly about how my contributions help to shape the organisation.
The standards covered in the apprenticeship include areas such as project management, leadership, developing relationships, management of self, and communication. These are all areas that align with my daily tasks and responsibilities in role which helps to ensure that I am able to compile evidence for my portfolio to showcase my learnings. I am regularly applying module theory and concepts to my role and I know understand my organisation and its industry better as a result of the programme learnings.

Yes

Unilever is a great company to work for as they are fully committed to supporting me as an apprentice and ensuring that I develop. They also have great credentials such as sustainability and a brilliant organisational culture where there is respect for everyone, no matter what their role or experience.