My Apologies

Apologies, it has been a while since I have last published an update of were I am with my apprenticeship. I am now just fewer than 11 months into my apprenticeship and it is still going as well as it was when I last talked abut it. I am now working in the Pensions department which is very different to when I was working in Transfers. It is coming up to 5 months that I have been working in the Pensions department which in my opinion has flown by and has been very enjoyable. Since I started working in the Pensions department in early April, I have been given several different task for me to carry out – some easier than others. A daily routine for me would be to send out any Letter of Authority’s that we have in the morning. These get sent out to external companies who our mutual clients have policies with. The reason for these getting sent out is to get authority on the policies so we can request information and possibly transfer the agency to Rathbones. I would then chase this every so often to make sure we received the information requested. Another task that I would carry out would be to update 1st (our bespoke software) with any CIF (Client Information Forms) that come in from the clients. This includes several details about the client whether it to be about their address, income details, expenditure details etc. With the CIF comes an ATR (attitude to risk) Questionnaire. This is made up of 10 questions that the client is to answer either 1,2,3,4 or 5. At the end of the questionnaire the client is to add up their score and this gives them a risk category whether it is Cautious, Balanced or Speculative. This shows what type of attitude they have when investing their money. As we as doing the above there have also been other tasks that I have carried out such as contacting external companies to get commission statements or contacting the advisers from Rathbones to see if they want annual packs sending out for their clients. Everyone in the Pensions department has made it a lot easier for me to settle in and work as they have always offered support to me when needed and it is good to know that if I am eve to need any help or assistance I can ask the people around me without there being any problems. I now only have just over a month left on the Pensions department and as I was when I was working in Transfers, I will be sad to leave. I am going to enjoy the remainder of my time in the Pensions department and look forward to the new challenge of my apprenticeship when I move to a different department in the company. That’s all from me for now, but next time I will talk you through how I got on towards the end of my time in Pensions and how I am feeling about moving to my next department, CSD (Client Static Data).

5 Months into my Apprenticeship

I am now 5 months into the apprenticeship and it is going even better than it was when I wrote my first blog 3 months in. Since my last blog I have taken on a lot more tasks and responsibilities and it has made me feel like I am now contributing much more and becoming a valued member of the team. From the start of my apprenticeship up until the 20th January I was working for ‘Team 1’ in the transfers department which deals with pre settlement transfers. During my time in team 1 I was taught many different roles and was given the responsibility to complete these tasks once I had been fully trained on them. The different roles involved looking at physical transfers, electronic transfers, ISA transfers and data inputting. I couldn’t have asked for better training and everyone who guided me within the team was extremely helpful, when I had any queries they would take time out of doing their own work just so they could help me out – this was greatly appreciated. Once my time was up in Team 1 I moved down to Team 2 which deals with post settlement transfers. I am now three weeks into my time with team 2 and it is going well so far (I think !). The first week involved me getting to know the new roles I was going to be expected to fulfil and I received some further training. Since then I have been given the responsibility to carry out these roles and I feel as though the experience gained from being given this responsibility will be invaluable in the future. I am staying with the transfers department until April 4th and I will be sad to leave the team as I have built strong relationships with my fellow workers in the department. The next department I will be working with is Pensions and although I will be upset to leave Transfers, I am looking forward to meeting new people and getting to know the roles and tasks I will be carrying out in this department of the company.