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We caught up with Rebecca, our HR Apprentice to hear how her first year has been, particularly in the middle of a global pandemic.

1. How has your first year went as an HR apprentice?

My first year as a HR apprentice has been quite different to how anyone could of expected due to the pandemic however I have still enjoyed every minute! Over the past year I have had the opportunity to work in a number of different HR teams, learning what processes each team carries out and contributing to projects. Since March last year I have been working from home, this hasn’t affected my everyday tasks too much as I can do my role easily from my laptop and still communicate instantly with the rest of the team over skype. I have completed all the modules for the main part of my apprenticeship course and just have one assessment left to complete.

2. Has there been any particular highlights?

I have enjoyed having the opportunity to work in so many different teams so far in my apprenticeship, this has given me experience in different aspects of HR from giving advice to carrying out HR processes. I have also enjoyed being able to take part in HR projects which has given me a deeper insight into how projects are coordinated and put together.

3. How has your role been adapted due to the pandemic?

In March last year I was working in the HR Helpdesk team, a few days before the official lockdown started we were told we would all be working from home. Although I started working from home my role itself didn’t change much, I could still take calls, communicate with the rest of the team and work on cases. When moving into a new team, working from home made learning new processes a bit more daunting, however by sharing screens with others in the team it wasn’t too different from being in the office. Overall I have enjoyed working from home.

4. What does the year ahead look like for you?

In the next few months I will be working on my End Point Assessment for my apprenticeship on the side of my day to day work in the Pay and Redundancy team. This is a piece of work is about a HR project I have been involved in, the project I chose to work on is around implementing the Outplacement Support service for international Ö÷²¥´óÐã employees. This End Point Assessment will take me up to the end of my apprenticeship in March, after this I will move into a HR role.

5. If you could turn back time and give yourself some advice as a new apprentice just starting out, what would you say?

If I could go back in time and give myself some advice I would say don’t worry about joining a new team that you don’t know anything about. When I join a new team I only know the basics of what that team does which can be daunting but everyone else in the team are always so helpful and you learn process by process so you’ll never be given anything you’re not trained to do.