Apprentice Stories
Phoebe, Customer service Apprentice
I work within the customer services department in Andover studying a level 3 customer service apprenticeship.
I work on reception and help all customers who visit the Andover offices at Beech Hurst. I also answer phone calls from customers, transferring calls to other departments, I am also dealing with any enquires, processing’s payments and logging services.
I chose to be an apprentice to develop my IT office skills, to build more confidence in myself, to help others but ultimately for a career change, and to try something that I haven’t done before. I also wanted another qualification behind me.
Every day is different, and you learn new things all the time. As a Customer Services Advisor, it is a hands-on job and I really enjoy being able to help customers. The amount of knowledge I have learnt from being an advisor and learning more about the Council every day has been amazing and using that knowledge to help customers really benefits our customers’ experience.
Having time to work on my apprenticeship but also being employed full time, earning whilst learning is great. Although I don’t have to attend college in person, I have meetings with my tutor once a month and submit my assignments online via a portal. My tutor that I have is amazing, so supportive and helpful, if I needed help, he was just an email away and he would book a meeting if I needed. Fantastic tutor.
My manager and team are a great support, they have and continue to be a massive help through my apprenticeship, and without them I don’t think I would have the confidence in myself now.
I would recommend an apprenticeship as you can learn whilst being in employment and you develop and gain new skills. The opportunities are great, meeting other apprentices and taking part in training courses. Being an apprentice is a win-win you get paid whilst getting a qualification, which is best of both worlds.