Apprentice Software Engineer Review

Item: Apprentice Software Engineer at Arm
Rating: 4.1
Author: Anonymous

at Arm

Degree Apprenticeship

Software Engineering

Cambridge

Review Submitted: April 2025

Overall Rating

4.1 /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!

5/5 - Overview of Role

5/5 - Skills Development

3.6/5 - Structure and Support

Overview of Role

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

5/5

I am an apprentice software engineer. Most of my work is software programming using different and appropriate technologies with problem solving. On a day to day basis, I have meetings and work on current tasks I have.

To what extent do you enjoy your programme?

5/5

I enjoy my work quite a lot. Arm has great work life balance and also great food. Everyone is happy to share their knowledge and get to know each other better. The work I am doing requires a lot of technical expertise and I love learning about this.

Skills Development

Have you learnt any new skills or developed existing skills?

5/5

Even though I had prior experience with some programming languages, I have been learning so much more working. I've learnt to use industry tools, writing quality code, improved my problem solving and also improved a lot of my soft skills from collaborating with colleagues.

Structure and Support

How well organised/structured is your programme?

5/5

I think from the employers side, Arm does a great job. The program consists of yearly rotations which most employers don't have and theres an amazing variety of teams from CPU, GPU to machine learning and systems. It's quite difficult to choose as everything looks interesting.

How much support do you receive from your employer?

5/5

Arm is great at providing support. A lot of Arms work is quite technical and requires technical knowledge so they have plenty of internal training videos. They also provide us access to training platforms. Every colleague I have spoken to have been extremely happy to help out.

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

2/5

The training provider provides support and people who need it do use it. This is through forums, contacting lecturers and access to training platforms and libraries. However, the training providers assignments are quite basic and simple that most people don't need to use the support.

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

1/5

I feel that what I am learning from the training provider has absolutely no relevancy to my work. The course modules are extremely basic in the coding modules and the rest of the modules are not at all relevant. Theres not even data structures, computer architecture and no maths/problem solving. Surprised that there was not even any data structures and algorithms which is quite literally the foundations of programming and help build problem solving. This is quite frustrating and the university aspect takes up time however nothing we learn is relevant. This may not just be a problem with the provider instead could also be a problem with the standard. There is a lot more to say about this but it wouldn't change anything.

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

5/5

There are plenty of clubs and societies in Arm. Sports teams, lunch time activities and anything you can think of is probably present in Arm. I in fact go to the lunch time badminton with colleagues to relax. Also play lots of table tennis at work with others. All these opportunities also make it easy to network with people all across the company even many senior people.