“We have just launched our new LDC course programme for 2020-21 and our workload has really picked up as we’ve been planning and organising the teaching.”
In January I started as an Administrator in the Learning and Development Centre (LDC) where I support the admin and organisation of the programmes run by the centre. This is mostly processing bookings for courses, answering enquiries and liaising with internal and external course tutors.
After I left school, rather than going to university I decided to start working. While studying for my A-levels I found there wasn’t a subject I wanted to study at university, and I knew I definitely didn’t want to go to university just for the sake of it. Initially I didn’t even think about an apprenticeship and just wanted to get a job, but without experience finding one was very difficult. Eventually, I looked into apprenticeships and found that I could study for a Level 3 qualification in Business Administration while working at Imperial’s Graduate School. I started the apprenticeship in September 2018 and after receiving a distinction, I started my new role in the LDC in January this year.
During my apprenticeship I spent one day a week studying and the other four days working. We studied several different modules which explored different elements of business administration, before completing an end point assessment and receiving our qualifications. As part of the assessment I had to improve something in my workplace. I looked at how the Graduate School used social media to promote their programmes and events and suggested improvements. For the assessment I gave a presentation, wrote a report and created a portfolio with examples of how I had demonstrated the different required skills.
My job at the Graduate School was a fixed term contract so I was delighted to get my current role with the Learning and Development Centre when I finished my apprenticeship. I hadn’t been working there very long when the pandemic hit, and we all started working from home which has definitely made my job quite different. We had to transition our provision online, so I’ve spent a lot of time working on Microsoft Teams and exploring how online learning works. Through March it was quiet but we have just launched our new LDC course programme for 2020-21 and our workload has really picked up as we’ve been planning and organising the teaching. It has been really busy, but great fun and really good experience.