Software Degree Apprentice Review

Essentially take on the role of a junior software developer for three days a week. depending what project you are put on you can either be going through the full software life cycle of design, implementation and testing or you may get placed on a dedicated testing team. these placements generally last a year before you're moved again so across they 3-4 years you should get a wide exposure to all areas of software. the other two days a week you take on a uni course, this is mainly through online lectures of varying quality but also some block release time too where you go up to the university and spend a week (depending on when you join) on campus. this generally happens a couple times a year (also depending on when you as it has changed a lot over the last few years). this can be quite full on especially by the final year as you're essentially doing a full degree in two days a week so if you want to achieve a good grade it requires a significant amount of free time to be used.

as mentioned before its gone through a lot of change over the last few years. however in my experience the programme is very well structured. people you work with on project wont have much idea about the scheme so that requires a lot of explaining sometimes but the people who you need to report to about progress (e.g skills coach) are always clued in, and at least in the yeovil office very keen and happy to help with any issues to do with diploma

While previous years had even less time given to them for uni the two days a week still doesn't really feel like enough if you want to get anything above a 3rd class degree. this is the main complaint i have about the scheme. the people on project are generally kind and happy to support you in the work you do with them but that is separate from the uni stuff. in the yeovil office most support for (especially for the diploma) comes from the skills coach who is as i have said before, very useful and happy to help with everything so that is a big area of the job where support is great.

This is a really lacking area, they are now using a new university to provide the degree but from the sound of it the new apprentices have similar issues to the previous provider. they dont tend to have any idea how our scheme works and you have to explain it to them over and over again, the point of contact person was kind of useless and didnt ever help much when asked, and the quality of lectures and materials delivered are pretty poor. this should be taken with a grain of salt because of the new provider the experience may be totally different but from what i hear from apprentices attending that university its quite similar to my experience

It is definitely useful to gain an understanding of the basics but it doesnt actually apply directly a lot of the time. it is still useful as you grow to understand terms and learn the general way of thinking and approaching issues that a software developer uses. but overall the learned content doesnt map to the stuff you do in the project work

Yes

Overall the office is pleasant. people are quite friendly and the work can be interesting (depending on project placement). they arent generally very cutting edge in the software used due to many legacy projects. the university side isnt great but in my opinion the extra stress and free time used is worth it for a paid for degree