To kick off our new CIPD Level 3 HR Support Apprenticeship cohort, we spoke with Charlotte Pike of Glu Recruit to get the inside scoop on what it’s like to be a HR Support Apprentice.
Before we begin you might be wondering…
What is a Level 3 HR Support Apprenticeship?
A HR support apprenticeship is designed for people professionals or HR administrators who are looking to develop their HR skills or refresh their knowledge. Day to day they will handle queries and provide HR advice to managers.
The apprenticeship costs £4500 and is funded through the government levy, with a minimum of 95% funding available, this is a great way for businesses to retain employees and upskill their teams.
Learn more about the HR Support Level 3 Apprenticeship.
Now you know a little about what a HR apprenticeship is, let’s hear from Charlotte…
What does your career journey to date look like?
So I applied for a role here at Glu Recruit as a fresh graduate after studying a law degree. Law wasn’t something I wanted to pursue but saw Glu as a great company to work so I applied to start in Administration. After 3 months of working here, I progressed into a recruitment consultant and then shortly progressed into a senior consultant. I didn’t envision ever being in recruitment but I feel when you are in the right environment and have the right attitude It can fit well.
Why did you choose to start the Level 3 HR Support Apprenticeship?
I studied employment law in my law degree and always had an interest in it. Starting a career in recruitment I saw a lot of opportunities whereby HR was really important however we outsource any HR advice due to the size of the business. I feel that with my initial interest that it would be really useful to have someone internal who knows the HR policies and procedures and can implement those into our business. Naturally, HR and recruitment go hand in hand but I wanted to start the course to give me more of an academic view as I love studying and learning new things.
What are you looking to learn from the CIPD Level 3 HR Support Apprenticeship course?
I am looking to learn the core HR policies and procedures which will be useful to use in day-to-day business life as well as how to deal and approach with certain situations. I also want to expand my people skills in the sense of diplomacy and how I could handle different situations.
What are you most looking forward to about starting your CIPD Level 3 HR Support Apprenticeship?
I am really excited to learn something new and really challenge myself as well as meet new people who have similar interests to me. I think it will be interesting to see how different people see different situations and learn from those too. I am also excited to be able to see how much I have learnt when a potential issue arises at work and I can see how I would handle it.
What are the key responsibilities in your role?
- To search, identify and interview candidates for vacancies through resourcing and interviews, I also help candidates with their job search.
- I build relationships with both clients and candidates and use sales techniques to win new business and gain continued business. I do this through sales calls, networking, marketing techniques and business development.
- Offer and advise the client on our suite of recruitment solutions for their campaign, honestly, consultatively and collaboratively selecting the best method for them.
- Advertise vacancies appropriately by drafting and placing adverts in a wide range of media to attract appropriate candidates.
- Structure your working day/ week to include client management, business development and sales calls to meet and or exceed agreed KPIs and targets.
- Manage and support our candidates through the recruitment process, briefing the candidate regarding responsibilities, salary, benefits of the vacancy and company culture and assisting with interview preparation
- Schedule interviews
What does your typical day look like?
I would plan my diary the day before and come to work at 08:00 am. I would then reply to everyone on Linked In and call all applications first thing in the morning.
I would then chase any interview requests or any cv requests first thing before I start resourcing on a job role which needs to be filled to try and find suitable candidates. Throughout the day I would do all of the pre-booked calls or Zoom calls in my diary.
I would do a candidate spec and 10 sales calls a day. I would also ensure all candidates who I have spoken to that day are registered prior to submission of cv’s.
A lot of the time we are doing activities to try and avoid candidates dropping out of interviews and making sure that these still happen. We keep all of our candidates and clients up to date throughout the day and make sure that we continue to submit cv’s, organise interviews and hopefully get placements.
How will you look to apply your new skills to your current role?
I would look to implement new procedures in place which were HR friendly to make a good working environment even better. I would look to eventually bring the HR function in-house as we currently outsource it as well as hopefully, in the future, create a HR function whereby I could provide our clients with HR advice.
How will the skills you’ll learn on this apprenticeship support your career development goals?
It will help me grow as a person individually as well as an employee. This is because I will be learning something new and gaining more experience in an avenue of life which I feel is really important and can be used in any business. I also aspire to integrate HR into my role and eventually do HR full-time.
What’s your onboarding experience been like so far and why did you choose Whyy? Change?
I have really enjoyed the process, it has been extremely easy and fast-paced which is good as I like to get things done. I am really happy to be onboarded through Whyy? Change As we already have a good working relationship with them and I value them already so I am happy I get to study with Whyy? Change.
If you’d like to know more about the accredited CIPD Level 3 HR Support Apprenticeship and how it could benefit your business, get in touch! Our team will be happy to help and answer any questions you may have.
That’s all from this article but if you’re interested in finding out more about apprenticeships, whyy not head over to our apprenticeships page to see all our accredited apprenticeship training courses?
