Digital Degree Apprentice Review
at Cheshire East Council
Degree Apprenticeship
Information Technology
Chester
Review Submitted: May 2022
Overall Rating
3.5 /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!
4/5
-
Overview of Role
4/5
-
Skills Development
2.8/5
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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:
4/5
My role on a daily basis involves security monitoring of users and breaches, IT desktop troubleshooting, and communicating with users who are experiencing problems and utilising the ITIL processes to effectively communicate and solve requests or incidents raised by them. This is a great step in developing a working set of skills; both technical and soft skills.
To what extent do you enjoy your programme?
4/5
I enjoy my time at Cheshire East Council very much. There are many opportunities to learn and the employers are lenient with giving time and space to work on the studies if necessary, as well as are accomodating to the 20% off the job work time. The work is exactly what I also want to do, and you get insight into many different IT teams and technologies
Skills Development
Have you learnt any new skills or developed existing skills?
4/5
I have developed a lot of existing skills, not only through the general business as usual (BAU) and project acitivites/work, but also in my time spent off-the-job training, in which part of the degree specifies 20% off the job training to be done in work. This equates to around 4 hours per week, and really helps with time develop skills.
Structure and Support
How well organised/structured is your programme?
2/5
The programme is not extremely well structured, on both sides. However, you do definitely get support if you need it, and there is always someone there to help and accomdate for your needs, so overall it balances out and still makes it a great place to further your career. Of course this becomes an issue with the learning quality, but it is still excellent to advance your knowledge; a combo of work and education is brilliant.
How much support do you receive from your employer?
4/5
I receive quite a lot of support from my employer. If anything is needed then an email will usually sort it out. You can liaise with the university (in my case MMU) if you have a problem at work, or you can liaise with work if you have a problem at university. It really is great and both do their best to help.
How much support do you receive from your training provider when working towards your qualifications?
3/5
The support from the training provider, in this case MMU, can sometimes be quite minimal. Me and other apprentices have come to tentative theory that this is because we are degree (part-time) and not full-time students. The university requires a lot of reading and work to be done in your own time, and a lot of the studying, but that is due to only being in university one day a week.
How well do you feel that your qualification (through your training provider) helps you to perform better in your role?
3/5
I feel that the academic technical skills learnt are not that applicable to the job, as they are very outdated and still using outdated powerpoint presentations and technologies from the past. However, the soft skills you learn are more important and really do help you perform better as there are multiple tasks related to furthering your soft skills, as well as project management units, 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
There used to be some extra-curricular activities, but there aren't really any anymore due to the start of COVID. There used to be workers who'd come in regularly to do fitness tests and give away healthy fruit/food, but this does not take place anymore. Extra curricular activities were very limited even before COVID anyway.
Recommendations & Advice
Would you recommend Cheshire East Council to a friend?
Yes
Why?
I would recommend CEC because it simply is a great place to work and is not always stressful like other jobs. The employers will support your needs, and a degree apprenticeship is the best way to learn. A free degree is amazing, and you get paid for the day you spend at university. It really is a great opportunity you would be lucky to get.
What tips or advice would you give to others applying to Cheshire East Council?
I would say make sure you investigate the council and their values before applying, although this can be hard to do. I would advise people to take the approach not that they know a lot about IT, but how passionate they are and how academic they are and want to succeed. They also want people who will stay after the 4 year degree has been completed, so think about saying you want a career with them, whether you do or not!
