Quality Apprentice Review

Item: Quality Apprentice at AstraZeneca
Rating: 3.5
Author: Anonymous

at AstraZeneca

Degree Apprenticeship

Pharmaceutical

Macclesfield

Review Submitted: April 2026

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

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:

4/5

I am in the quality assurance team on one of the drug manufacture facilities. I help make critical quality and batch related decisions. My role is to help ensure the environment the drugs are made in, the tools used and the operators that interact with the drugs are sterile and free from microorganisms. My role involves aseptic observations, product batch document reviews, deviation management and much more.

To what extent do you enjoy your programme?

4/5

I enjoy the working side of the programme a lot, as I like the fast paced environment and having to work collaboratively between many teams. I like the fact I am gaining real world experience alongside my studies. The university side is flexible and I enjoy most modules.

Skills Development

Have you learnt any new skills or developed existing skills?

4/5

I have developed and gained a multitude of skills whilst completing my programme.
I have always been a good communicator but since joining the programme I have been able to refine my communication methods in a more professional way. I have grown immensely both personally and professionally and feel proud of how far I have come.
I have developed great networking connections with a wide number of teams and individuals I have worked with.
I have gained mountains of new technical knowledge about the production streams. I have completed nearly all training for my role and continue to drive remaining tasks.

Structure and Support

How well organised/structured is your programme?

3/5

The work side of things is much better organised than the university side. The uni side feels difficult and unorganised at times but only for specific modules. For each new module we seem to require new software. Installing this software is often a real struggle as we require a lot of admin help from work IT systems as the technology needs approving and more often than not we are not allowed to have the software on work laptops so we have to use personal laptops which feels disjointed having the work across two laptops. The sheer volume of software/apps required by uni is frustrating

How much support do you receive from your employer?

3/5

Support is available if needed

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

3/5

Information about EPA is given quite late on I feel I may have benefitted from having the information earlier.

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

3/5

In my job there is no direct lab technique work on the day to day basis, however the knowledge broadly supports me and aids me in my ability to make informed scientific decisons.