Mike is a former Chartered Manager degree apprentice who undertook the course while at Cheshire East Council. He graduated in the summer of 2022 and has since started a new job at a different organisation. Mike spoke to us about how the apprenticeship improved his confidence and had a real impact on both his organisation and him.

A LIFE-CHANGING DECISION

The Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship has completely changed my life, both professionally and personally. Despite initial hesitations due to doing it later in life, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The skills and confidence gained have been invaluable. It allowed me to make an impact in my previous role and has prepared me well for my new career journey.

When I left school, I wanted to work and learn, so I did a standard apprenticeship. Degree apprenticeships didn’t exist, so I relied on day release and night school to progress from an administration role within the payments team to the IT’s ‘break/fix’ team for Cheshire County Council. 

QUALIFICATIONS LEADING TO PROGRESSION

I have always believed in learning to develop myself. This was reflected in my move from break/fix activities to problem management, where I could explore technology problems with a different mindset, broadening my skills further. I used the experience to secure a supervisor role managing operations for the council’s remote access and mobile connectivity. As my confidence was growing within the team, I was able to secure a role in operations management, overseeing desktop for two councils. I implemented a service improvement plan to merge two teams to achieve success, for Cheshire East Council ICT Services. Reflecting on this journey, I can see where I started to strategically think of the wider organisation and how it led to working in collaboration with the management team, leading to the apprenticeship.

With the Degree Apprenticeship, I was able to transition from a technical role to a management position where I could develop and lead a team to grow and support existing members into more senior roles. Mentoring and training has always been a passion of mine, and this role allowed me to further pursue and apply those skills. The Degree Apprenticeship has truly prepared me to confidently tackle challenges and opportunities in management and think strategically.

FAST-TRACK OR FOUR-YEAR

When I was presented with the opportunity for the Degree Apprenticeship, I had a choice between the two-year Fast-Track option and the four-year course. It was a big commitment, but I felt the four-year programme would give me a solid foundation. I’d been out of education for some time, and I wanted to ease back into it. I feel this gave me the space and time to develop my confidence and skills, I’m glad I chose that route, it was worth every moment.

PREPARATION FOR THE FUTURE

The networking side of university helped me to progress my career in a way I didn’t think possible. I had a chat about networking with one of my lecturers early on, pointing me to LinkedIn and how to network and build relationships, the importance of this is really clear and should be a priority for anyone working across all sectors.

The end-point assessment (EPA) prepared me well for my most recent job interview – it was exactly the same format. We had a professional discussion, then I gave my presentation, and they followed up with questions. The EPA was fantastic practice and a great experience. I highly recommend that students reflect on the skills developed from the process.

EMPLOYEE-MANGAGER RELATIONSHIP

Extremely important to the Degree Apprenticeship was having a great relationship with my manager. The trust, guidance and advice from my manager was absolutely vital to successfully completing this course and enabling a positive future with direction. I felt trusted and empowered with management tasks, including ownership of projects and being able to share my skills and knowledge with my colleagues.  During one of my earlier assignments, I actually uncovered some cost savings through this exercise and implemented improvements to ensure it would not impact the service again. Just within the first year, my manager noted the positive change with me, and was really pleased with everything I was bringing back into the organisation.

That did make it difficult to share the news about a new role offer from another organisation, but I was reassured that the four years I’d dedicated to the team while on the Degree Apprenticeship had a huge impact and she was pleased for me. My final year project had enabled me to leave a plan in place for the new team I’d implemented – transferring activities to a new team, who would embed the process for change and adoption within the organisation.

PROJECT IMPACT

When I first started my Degree Apprenticeship, I was primarily focused on technology, due to my operational background. However, as I progressed, I became interested in management and strategy, which is where I wanted to apply my skills and gain experience. When COVID-19 hit, and I had the opportunity to work on projects related to enabling Council employees to work from home. During this time, I noticed that there were knowledge gaps among the workforce regarding the use of technology. I identified this issue, developed a business case, and presented it to senior managers. This resulted in the hiring of a specialist and the formation of a team to provide adoption training directly with the business

The support and guidance I received from my lecturers during the Degree Apprenticeship was invaluable. The course structure, theory and knowledge could all be related to my workplace. I gained a broad range of skills, including stakeholder management and relationship building. This allowed me to work effectively with various people in different positions, building my confidence to utilise skills gained through the programme.

I am currently working as a Customer Success Account Manager for a different organisation,  but the experience from my previous role, including the skills and experience gained from the Degree Apprenticeship has enabled me to gain confidence to build my ‘mission’, which is working with customers and helping them to gain the best value from products and services. This role allows me to leverage these skills and provide support to customers.

RELEVANT CONTENT FOR ALL

The experience I gained was absolutely life-changing from day one. The content was perfect for what I was doing. Every business works in different ways, but the foundations of business and management are the same. It’s just opening your eyes to new ways of delivering that experience with different theory and applying that to your own situation.

The structure of the course was fantastic, the modules built up over time to tell a story – by the end, it had all just clicked together. When it came to my EPA, I was ready, and was looking forward to telling my story. I was nervous, but the experience has had a lasting impact on me as an individual and my career.

Overall, the Degree Apprenticeship was an incredible experience that equipped me with the skills and knowledge I need to succeed in a management or customer success role. I am grateful for the support I received from my lecturers and manager, which opened up the opportunities to progress further in my career. 

Find out more about our Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship.