Business & Management
as a customer assistant for the first six months, learning from one of the company’s training mentors. “While they’re doing this, their first study module is on the retail business environment, which introduces them to the sector and helps them understand the whole supply chain, from farm to fork,” continues Wheatley. Later modules include retail culture and service mindset, marketing, the retail product life cycle, finance, and digital retailing. “Retail is such an exciting sector to be in because it’s so fast-paced. For people who are willing to get stuck in, roll up their sleeves and want to make a difference on a daily basis, it’s an amazing environment to be in,” asserts Wheatley. “And our new degree apprenticeship offers a terrific opportunity for those who want to progress into a management or leadership position in a retail business that’s growing at speed.”
they set essays and assignments for us to do. I’ll then work on these during my study days, which are usually each Wednesday when we’re not on-campus. Doing an apprenticeship really has been the best of both worlds as I really do feel like I’m a university student for the weeks where I’m focusing on my coursework. When I get to the end of my degree apprenticeship, things are very flexible. I could either stay on with the team I’m working with at the time or talk to the talent team about taking on a role somewhere else in the business. They’ll look at what’s best-fitted for you and help you negotiate for the role. You’re in a strong position because you’ve been in the business for three years and have had all that experience, as well as your degree. Alternatively, I’m able to look elsewhere if I decide that I want to broaden my knowledge and I want to pursue something different to what Unilever offers. ”
National Apprenticeship Week, putting together all the content for the week, getting ex-apprentices to speak, and doing our Instagrams and LinkedIn pages. From my point of view, I see Unilever as quite a ‘young’ company because we have so many apprentices, industrial placement students and graduates in so many different parts of the company. It’s a great community and really sociable too. I’m doing the degree part of my apprenticeship with York St John University, which has a London campus in Canary Wharf. I go onto campus every couple of months for an intense week of lectures and seminars, like a normal university student, and I’m someone who needs structure in my life and to know what I’m doing each day
scheme, they thought that for my first rotation, I would be best fitted to human resources (HR), the role I am currently in. I’m doing the chartered management degree apprenticeship, which is a three- year programme that includes two 18-month rotations in different parts of Unilever, such as customer development (sales), marketing, finance, and supply chain. My current job title is ‘Future Career Specialist’, so in my day- to-day role I actually help support other apprentices in the business. I’m based in our Kingston office in Surrey but Unilever has apprentices in Port Sunlight (near Liverpool), Leeds, and in our central London office too. In my role, there’s quite a lot of project-based work, like developing our partnerships with apprenticeship training providers, organising this year’s ‘Discovery Centres’, and revamping all our new materials for these assessment centres. I even got to work on project for
Degree Apprenticeships 45
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online