HR apprentice

Hi, my name is Jimmy Hunt and I'm an HR apprentice at UCB.

The reason I chose to work in this industry is because I wanted to work somewhere where I really felt like I can make a difference. Although my role isn't really a lab based role, I feel like by providing support and providing assistance to our scientists, I'm really helping to transform patients lives across the world.

So there's two different aspects to my apprenticeship the part where I can learn and the part where I can earn as well.

So there'd be days like now where I am in the office I'm gaining valuable workplace experience. I'm learning from my colleagues, and just getting a general idea of what my role consists of. Other days, I'll be home, I'll be attending my webinars, I'll be making notes and I will be preparing for my assessments to get the best grade I can in my level five qualification.

I heard about the apprenticeship on the gov.uk website. There's a fantastic section about apprenticeships, where you can filter by apprenticeship type, the industry type, there's lots of different filters.

When I originally saw the role, I was a bit apprehensive as I saw it was a scientific organisation and my science wasn't strong. However, when I saw that I could really make a difference and I could really contribute to helping people around the world, it was a no brainer for me.

I think the COVID 19 pandemic has impacted all of us. With my apprenticeship my lessons are still online, but I don't feel this hinders me in any way. I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything by not being in the classroom. For starters, all of the tools I need are available online. The PowerPoint presentations are online, every everything I could need I can access and although you miss that face to face function, I don't feel like you miss that much by being virtual.

So I want to get the best possible grade I can in my level five course and moving on from that because I've now found out how much I enjoy HR and how much I want to pursue a career in HR. I really want to work towards getting my level seven qualification as well.