Statistics and expert advice can all be very useful, but there’s nothing like a first-hand experience! My name’s Georgia, I’m a level 3 business admin apprentice. I’ve been asked to give an insight about how us newly recruited apprentices, each go about our day at Direct Air.
Meet Lauren
Lauren is 16 years old and currently the youngest Direct Air apprentice – and youngest in the company! She joined the company in October 2019 after completing her GCSE’s. Lauren has enrolled onto the level 2 business administration course and she is based in the Service department.
What do you do day-to-day?
After getting the bus and checking my schedule for the day ahead, I arrive at work and settle at my desk by 8am. Accompanied by an essential cup of tea of course! I begin my day by making a note of all the job’s we recently carried out for customers. Following this, I call each customer on the list and ask a series of simple questions. Ensuring customers are happy with our service is my main priority!
This is one of my many tasks where I’m using the phone, as I sit in the main office where all the initial incoming calls are received. So, when other colleagues are occupied, I’m on hand to take any calls throughout the day! Similarly, to this, when my colleagues are absent or overloaded with work, I am now confidently trained to help them out with various tasks. Some examples include, scheduling engineers, sending out customer quotations and transferring enquiries internally. The service department have such fast-moving processes, so it’s always interesting here. Also, hearing positive customer feedback will forever be rewarding!
Alongside doing these daily tasks, I’m also constantly maintaining my college work. I do this to maintain my 20% off-the-job training and ensure I’m keeping up with my qualification. I mostly do this after completing a task which is out of my regular job role, by recording it onto my learning log. This can be anything from an online training course, to a new filing technique that I’ve never used before. Just like the daily work I do for Direct Air; this is a really important task!
Which of your daily tasks require a lot of trust and responsibility?
Once I’ve done the morning customer service calls, I must then ensure our engineers are on track to complete their jobs for that day. I must be very on the ball for this because each engineer will have jobs lasting for various lengths of time. With over 11 engineers in the company, it isn’t all that simple to monitor, believe me! The responsibility comes into this task, as I must use our bespoke systems/spreadsheets to find the information. These systems contain client information which must be kept confidential. Not just anyone is given this database accessibility, so I must be very well trusted! I carry this process on throughout the day and conclude it as my final task before I leave at 4:30. By collating a list of any outstanding overlapping jobs, I can see what needs to be re-scheduled.
Which daily tasks do you enjoy the most? Are there any that you don’t enjoy as much?
One job that I really enjoy doing within my working role is updating our CRM system. I don’t do this daily, it’s more like once a week or so. It consists of me ensuring that all organisations and individuals’ information that we deal with, is correctly filled in. Occasionally, there will be missing pieces of information that are important, so this is where I come in! It’s interesting to find out more about the companies we work with.
I enjoy hearing positive feedback during my morning customer service calls, but there’s an aspect of calling that still makes me nervous. Before I’d had minimum experience with using the phone, so I wasn't 100% confidence with it. But I understand that practicing is important for my development. Using the phone is a huge part of my job role and I’ve already noticed my confidence with it improving already from when I first started here. On top of this, I’m enrolling onto a phone calling course, which I’m excited about because it will help to improve my competence with this task.
Meet Georgia
I am a 19-year-old level 3 business administration apprentice; but I specialise within the Marketing department at work. I joined Direct Air in July 2019 after completing my A-levels and an Art Foundation Diploma.
What do you do daily?
My mornings begin with arriving to work at around 7:45, allowing me with 15 minutes to start my day right with a crucial coffee and croissant! As 8am hits, I check our enquiries inbox and my direct work email, as I monitor both every morning and afternoon.
The remainder of my day varies massively each week due to my role being Marketing focused. I love this varied routine because it keeps me constantly on my toes and means I’m learning new skills all the time. This interchangeable schedule consists of tasks like the management of Direct Air’s internal systems. I keep on top of this by updating areas like SharePoint with new content each month. I also co-lead on Marketing/Sales projects which take part at varying times, so I pick up this responsibility whenever it’s necessary. To end my day, I always make sure to update my online Google sheet ‘to do list’. This keeps me on track and ensures I don’t miss out any important tasks within my constantly adjusting timetable! As well as setting aside time to amend my ‘to do list’, I also allow a few hours every Friday afternoon to complete any outstanding college work. To ensure I don’t forget to do this, I’ve planned a reoccurring task on my calendar.
Do any of your tasks require a lot of trust and responsibility?
I manage Direct Air’s social media, which has got to be one of my biggest responsibilities. It means being relied on to create posts that must be appropriate, relevant and captivating. I do this weekly, to ensure our followers are always up to date with what’s going on here. I’ve got to keep the content engaging and attractive (which isn’t always easy in an industrial setting!) or else it won’t entice any new customers.
Which daily tasks do you enjoy the most? Are there any that you don’t enjoy as much?
On the first day of every month, I collate the data from Direct Air’s social media and website analytics, to create reports. I love this task because it’s really interesting to analyse the statistics and see if what we’re doing is actually working! Seeing positive results, like leads reaching the website from the social platforms, is so rewarding. It makes me proud to know my content made such an impact.
Attending events and co-leading presentations aren’t daily tasks for me, but when they do occur, my lack of confidence can knock me. This has always been an issue for me, however, each time I take part, I can feel myself becoming more at ease with the situation and enjoying the process. I’m so determined to perfect this!
Read another blog like this one! https://www.directair.co.uk/news/benefits-for-both-business-and-apprenticeships/