This National Apprenticeship Week, Customer Contact Team Leader, Tom sat down for a catch up with Alf, the Livewell apprentice, for an interview about his experience so far...
Essential reading if you're interested in apprenticeships, or the inner workings of the Livewell Customer Contact Team!
How has the last year gone?
It’s been an incredible experience for myself, very significant for my personal growth and my learning. I feel my experiences over the last year have made me much more confident, both in and out of work.
What skills have you learned or developed?
I’ve continued to develop my customer service skills, including my active listening and problem solving. I’m always focused on finding the right outcome in my interactions with both clients and colleagues, listening to understand what I can do to help and then coming up with a solution that works for everyone.
I’ve developed a range of other skills too, including how best to organise and prioritise my workload, more computer literacy and creating content for our social media posts. I’ve learned the importance of working efficiently and how to work smarter.
Working with the team in the office, I’ve sought advice from colleagues who have shared their own experiences, and incorporated this into how I work.
How have you applied your on the job experience to your learning?
My experience on the job has helped improve the quality of my assignments, and allowed me to relate theoretical ideas to real life scenarios. This means my assignments have a grounding in real life and are relevant to the world of work.
How has your classroom learning helped you in the workplace?
Learning skills such as time management and effective communication at college has helped me be more efficient in the workplace. By learning how to communicate effectively, across a variety of channels, means that my colleagues and clients leave their interactions with a clear understanding of what I have done for them, and what will happen next. I’m also using my performance improvement project from college to have a real life impact on the Livewell service, improving our efficiency going forward.
What advice would you give to someone looking to start an apprenticeship?
Do your research and always ask questions, everyone is incredibly supportive and will help you learn and improve yourself. Be patient, an apprenticeship is a marathon not a sprint and over time you will develop your skills, allowing you to excel both in the workplace and with the assignments too. Be prepared to have to balance the two different elements of the apprenticeship and make sure you get regular feedback on both aspects to continue to improve. It’s also great to be earning whilst learning, giving me more freedom in my spare time! The main piece of advice I would give is to definitely go for it, I find the combination of on the job and classroom based learning gives a variety to my days and keeps me focused.
Find out more about apprenticeship opportunities with Derby City Council.
