Jess's Apprenticeship Journey – January
Find out how Jess got along in the second month of her Business Administration Apprenticeship, the new skills and knowledge she has acquired and the impact of Covid-19.
Read Jess’s December blog.
“As my confidence increases in my role and I’m getting to know my co-workers better with a quick phone or video call I can have a chat and ask questions when I need help. Everyday I feel myself becoming more confident and independent, and the benefits of working from the comfort of my own home are still there – including being able to work in pyjama bottoms!
How have your skills and knowledge developed this month?
I would say I have really improved my knowledge of IT packages such as Excel. I have used spreadsheets before but never had the luxury of using the latest formats of Excel and now I can truly say I have. It took me a minute to find my bearings as some of the settings look a lot nicer, but they hide away certain functions very well. But once I had gotten used to the new adjustments, I was well on my way by starting on three different spreadsheets; one a weekly report on vacancies to be sent out; another starting to collect data that can be used to refer people from apprenticeships to traineeships and the last one I was most excited for, and long awaited, access to the Enrolment Tracker! The access to the Enrolment Tracker I received once my DBS Check finally came back clear, phew! Whilst I have only just started inputting onto the Enrolment tracker it is great to have added another accomplishment onto the list.
What was your highlight?
This month I have been receiving larger amounts of work which has challenged me to manage my time more effectively. It has also helped break up some of the larger time-consuming tasks with some quicker, interesting tasks. The best piece of work I feel I have done was to complete my work for my tutor, I am eager to get feedback from my tutor at our next session. At school I was not the best with completing my schoolwork, it was only after leaving school and being faced with the boredom of doing nothing I discovered my very secret work ethic. Thankfully, it is not so hidden anymore, I was still very proud when I had completed it.
Outside of work I was proud and happy to open all my Christmas prezzies!
What did you find the most challenging?
As I am sure everyone else is feeling given the current events of Coronavirus, I started to notice the knock-on effects of working from home, the inability to have a quick chat in the break room or a hello in the morning. However, as my confidence increases in my role and I’m getting to know my co-workers better with a quick phone or video call I can have a chat and ask questions when I need help. Everyday I feel myself becoming more confident and independent, and the benefits of working from the comfort of my own home are still there – including being able to work in pyjama bottoms!
My first week back at work after the Christmas festivities I also had Coronavirus. My family all got it just before Christmas, so i spent up until Christmas Day in isolation, then my Gran got it from going in and out of the hospital so I was supporting her and then in the new year I started to feel ill so I got tested after feeling unwell. I did at first think it might be a general cold, just a bad one, as my sister works with children so it can get passed around.
Even though I work at home it got the point where I couldn’t get out of bed, and it was difficult to know the point where I had to call my manager to call in sick. As I don’t work in a physical office it’s almost an expectation that you can sit on the sofa and work and this will be easy, but I found it mentally draining and I was exhausted – I also knew I worked with lovely people and an understanding manager. I spoke to my manager and when I came to back I completed a return to work interview and had a follow-up call checking about symptoms. We have a dedicated Covid-response team who regularly update us internally on what to do so I knew the steps, as well as guidance everyone can access on our internal website.
My household of six have luckily got through it, my mum got it bad and I did also with my cough only just starting to go away and it was only when I started to feel better that I lost my taste and my sense of smell and a few weeks later these haven’t returned. It feels like a game of roulette because you don’t know how bad you’re going to get it. So from mid-December to now I’ve been isolating which is a long time to not be outside. We had the mindset we would all come across it, we just weren’t sure when so we weren’t surprised as a large family of keyworkers.
My nan is in the high-risk category and had been shielding, we were incredibly worried if she got it and then she did. She was in the hospital for a time and we feared the worst but thankfully she is now out of hospital and at home and is getting better. She’s still ill, in part to her existing condition and she will take a lot longer to recover and is struggling more than us, most of us are back to normal but she will take a few months to recover at the minimum.
With my family all being key-workers too, some of the people they work with were a bit worried, my sister is getting less shifts and there seems to be a lot of prejudice and stigma surrounding it at the moment, at my dad’s work they’re short of staff as other people are off so he didn’t have that issue but it’s definitely a concern for others.
I’m grateful to have a job to do during the day, it’s not just about your health it’s everything about what happens afterwards, we have all been following the rules and there’s the assumption that if you get Covid you haven’t. We don’t know where we got it, through the school or the shops. For myself I’m following the rules as I want the normality back, it is sucky, but it’s sucky for everyone so we all need to find a way of dealing with it as we can’t change it.
How have things changed since you last wrote?
Last time I wrote my blog it was focused on sharing the initial steps of how I applied and working from home and in this update, I already feel very settled and a lot of my initial concerns dissolved. I am also able to report back better on my progress and development without it being focused on what I did before working at Ixion.
What five words describe your learning this month?
Progressive, full, resourceful, generous, enthusiastic
“This month I have been receiving larger amounts of work which has challenged me to manage my time more effectively. It has also helped break up some of the larger time-consuming tasks with some quicker, interesting tasks.”
“Jessica has been great addition to the Employer Engagement Team – she is always positive and shows a great attitude to her work as well continually pushing for more responsibility. She demonstrates a strong ability to manage the balance of helping others on the team and carrying out her own direct responsibilities. As an apprentice Jessica has adapted brilliantly to working remotely not having any face to face interaction or visiting any of our offices!
Jess had the added pressure of going into isolation over Christmas and early in the New Year when her and her family tested positive for Covid-19.
From her first interview I knew Jess would be a great member of the team and she has taken to this apprenticeship like a duck to water!”