Pros
Firstly, the company is located in a great place in NQ Manchester. The office itself is a really nice working environment. It is spacious and has areas to play games and socialise. It is also cleaned regularly by an external cleaning company which keeps it looking nice. The people at Ignite are great, I always enjoy their company inside and outside of the office. The company has access to perkbox, which I am currently using to get free mobile insurance, other than that the perks seem to be a little lacklustre but it is still appreciated. The company offers a substantial budget for training, If I remember correctly its about £3000 per person and 5 days a year the company offers for training to full time employees. As an apprentice I have obviously received training on different terms. There are some benefits that get taken for granted a little but are definitely appreciated. Every month the team has a free lunch out which is always good to socialise with colleagues and eat some good food. On birthdays there is a wheel of fortune that that gives you a chance to win benefits such as days off and prize money. There is also a free fruit basket that gets delivered to the office. There looks to be some great opportunities available to me in the future at this company. I look forward to continuing my apprenticeship at Ignite.
Cons
I have really struggled completing coursework at Ignite. I apprentices should have 20% off the job training time over the course of the year, this includes coursework or other learning related to the job. I might have received more like 10% at a push over the year. The workload also is usually very high and can be quite stressful. I can point to that as the reason for the lack of off the job training time. I like being busy at work but It’s difficult to get the balance that I need as an apprentice for self-improvement. Over the last year I also struggled to find sufficient guidance from seniors or leads. Primarily this is because I haven’t had a permanent lead for any more than a couple of months. I've had to figure a lot of things out for myself, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I just wish that over the last year I had someone to push me in the right direction and put me on paths to improve myself at work.