Administration Officer Review

Item: Administration Officer at Department for Work and Pensions
Rating: 3.4
Author: Anonymous

at Department for Work and Pensions

Level 2 Apprenticeship

Customer Service

Dudley, West Midlands

Review Submitted: February 2025

Overall Rating

3.4 /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!

2.5/5 - Overview of Role

4/5 - Skills Development

3.2/5 - Structure and Support

Overview of Role

Please give an overview of your role and what this involves on a day-to-day basis:

3/5

My role is an Administration Officer (AO) and involves operating different systems to manage Child Maintenance cases. There is also an inbound and outbound telephony component to the role. I am responsible for handling a number of cases and ensuring that they are progressed in a timely and accurate fashion.

To what extent do you enjoy your programme?

2/5

Overall, my experience with this apprenticeship has been mixed. The role-based learning I have received has been very helpful and the staff have generally been very helpful and welcoming. The online learning aspect in relation to the training provider Lifetime could have been much improved. The L2 Customer Service qualification was not always an accurate fit for the role we were doing, and our experience with learning coaches has been mixed, as some of my team and I have had their coaches switched multiple times, which is not ideal when we had specific learning goals to be achieved.

Skills Development

Have you learnt any new skills or developed existing skills?

4/5

I have developed a number of important skills during my time at the Child Maintenance Service. One of the biggest is telephony skills. I was initially completely inexperienced with telephony but since joining the DWP, my skills in this area have improved drastically. I have also become confident in navigating complex systems and sites, which the CMS uses frequently.

Structure and Support

How well organised/structured is your programme?

3/5

The overall structure of the programme is adequate as a whole. We used a site called Aptem, which had all of our learning modules structured at a monthly basis for us to complete. While this was easy enough, many of the modules did not quite match up with our role so we had difficulties completing them.

How much support do you receive from your employer?

4/5

The level of support we received from our employer via our team leaders and higher-ups has been significant and beneficial. Our team leaders have always ensured that we are able to remain on top of our apprenticeship work without disrupting our CMS role based work. We each had a designated day of the week that we could use to complete apprenticeship work & learning, which allowed us to stay ahead of schedule.

How much support do you receive from your training provider when working towards your qualifications?

2/5

Our training provider, Lifetime, has generally been able to assist us in reaching our qualification. We were given monthly meetings by our coaches who would check up on our progress and provide tips & advice when it was needed. However, for me and others in my team, often we would be assigned a learning coach for a couple of weeks but then would be reassigned another without notice and would be unable to communicate with them for weeks at a time in places. This was not beneficial for learning.

How well do you feel that your qualification (through your training provider) helps you to perform better in your role?

3/5

Overall, I think that the training towards the L2 Customer Service qualification has benefitted me in my job role. The qualification provided insight into how customer service, as well as being aware of legislation would affect how we interact with our customers, which is a relevant part of our job role.

Are there extra-curricular activities to get involved in at your work? (For example, any social activities, sports teams, or even professional networking events.)

4/5

The DWP does provide a wide range of extra-curricular activities to its staff via a partnership with Hassra. Hassra is an organisation that for a small monthly subscription fee, provide discounts to staff for a wide variety of activities and venues, as well as hosting special events that DWP staff can access, which Hassra covers the costs for.

Recommendations & Advice

Would you recommend Department for Work and Pensions to a friend?

Yes

Why?

I would recommend the Department for Work and Pensions to a friend for a number of reasons.
First, the working hours are quite flexible, and allow for greater freedom of personal time. We use a flex system, which allows staff to work a certain amount of overtime which gets logged on an individual flexi-sheet. The amount of overtime completed by staff can then be taken as time off when they please.
Second, the DWP is a very inclusive and accommodating organisation, allowing staff members with disabilities or other difficulties to adapt their working style in a way that is feasible and comfortable for them. This prevents disability from being a barrier to employment, a welcome aspect of the DWP.

What tips or advice would you give to others applying to Department for Work and Pensions?

For others who are joining the Department for Work and Pensions, it is important to make sure that proper attention is given for any online or in-person training during. There are may complicated systems and tasks to learn, so it is essential that the training is taken seriously. The role is a serious one due to the nature of the work but so long as the training is taken onboard, anyone can thrive here and learn that they are capable of much more than they might think.

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