A Day In The Life Of An Apprentice

The A-Team truly does offer a variety of opportunities. Depending on what role you are interested in will determine the typical work you will undertake, though you will still have access to the excellent development opportunities central to the scheme.

It can be difficult to know what your daily work will be like until you start – which is why we have asked two of the A-Team to give a brief overview of their typical days as an apprentice in Cheshire East Council.

Case Study - Business and Administration

Name: Naomi Brown

Role: Business and Administration Apprentice - Adults Workforce Development Team

"My day to day responsibilities are delivering a range of training programmes to the Adults Social Care teams, and I support the team by carrying out various clerical tasks. I have been on my apprenticeship for 14 months.  Read on if you want to find out what my work day is like.

I start work at 8:30am. Once I get in I log onto my computer and greet the team and then make myself a hot drink. I check my e-mails and then check my ‘to do list’. As I work with the WFD team, I have to check the training emails to check for any new training requests and whether I have to make changes to current bookings.

When I have completed this, I then check to see if I have to send out training confirmations or delegate’s lists to the trainers. I answer any incoming calls for the team and respond to enquiries about training. Depending on what training sessions are running, I may have to photocopy evaluation forms and safeguarding question sheets.

The introduction of OLM is a new system to capture training information, and I have started to pick up some tasks relating to OLM.  For example, I upload training sessions, venues, trainers and delegates who are due to attend upcoming training.  I work with another colleague, to ensure that I load the right information onto OLM, and to make sure the information is correct, I cross check this information with spreadsheets (for specific courses).

About 1pm I have a dinner break, I always make sure I go out and get fresh air, so I feel refreshed and ready for the afternoon.I work closely with the whole team which means I get bits of work and tasks off all the team members. I have a lot of variation in what I do and as we also have trainers in the team, they also give me tasks to do. During the afternoon I deal with these tasks and if I have time, I will continue with other tasks such as scanning documents from old training sessions onto the teams shared server. Throughout the day, I still check the training emails, update the spreadsheets and OLM, and answer the phone.

I finish work at 5pm. Before I leave, I have to make sure all the equipment that I have been using it put away and is tidy. I then write my ‘to do list’ for the next day and check that the cupboards are closed and locked.

I love my apprenticeship, as I always have something new and different to do each day. I have also gained so much experience in dealing with my own work load and working as part of a busy and professional team."

Case Study - Streetscape

Name: Kieron Whitehead

Role: Streetscape Apprentice – Grounds Maintenance

"I started the council not knowing what I really wanted to do, I had just completed my GCSE’s at Congleton High School. A teacher at school advised me that there are other things to do when I leave school rather than going into further education which I really did not want to do, after many meetings with the school and Cheshire East Council, I was given the opportunity to work within the streetscape team doing a variety of work in the outdoors. Which Is something I really enjoy as I like being hands on and working outdoors.

The typical working day at the park would be starting at the Park at 8am but before this I get the 6.30 bus to get to the park, then from there we would collect our equipment and tools then go over to the bridges where we need to check the safety and ensuring that the barriers are all up and in the correct place.

After this we would then go on to the winter maintenance schedule, which consists of pruning and cutting back the shrubs beds around the park, at the moment we are cutting back the woodland walk, and creating a new path made from wood chippings. It does look really good the end result will be something I will be proud of as I have helped create it.

In the summer time there is a lot of maintenance of the flower beds required which consists of watering and weeding, There is not just the grounds side which we look after at the park there is also the Street Cleansing side, which consists of litter picking removing graffiti and emptying of the bins ensuring the park is kept clean and tidy for all the visitors it has each day.

The team in which I work with are a good bunch of lads and I get on really well with them all, my supervisor and team are all ways keen to help me improve and keep me motivated through my course and practical work.
I currently go to Reaseheath College every Friday with my brother who is an apprentice at West Park Macclesfield and Dan Band who also works at Queens Park with me".