An Apprentice's Journey

Earlier this year we sat down with Dartmoor National Park Authority (DNPA) apprentice Abbie to talk more about her journey from apprentice to full time HR officer with DNPA.

Why did you decide to become an apprentice?

When I saw the opportunity come up, I thought it would be great to build on skills that I already had before.

So, I’d worked in previous admin roles so HR I suppose was kind of a step in a different direction. With an apprenticeship you get valuable on the job experience as well as learning something new. Which I think is really sought after when you’re looking for employment, people want you to have job experience working in that area.

So that’s why I decided to do this apprenticeship.

What excited you about doing an apprenticeship with DNPA?

The opportunity just to learn a new skill, to do the apprenticeship and then the opportunity to work for Dartmoor National Park.

It’s a really, interesting, cool place to work.

What do you like most about your job?

I think what I like most is being able to support staff and support our volunteers. My role involves a lot of supporting our staff and volunteers with a wide range of queries, you get lots of different queries every day, and I think being able to help people, and knowing I’ve had a positive impact on their day, that’s probably one of the most favourite things about my job.?

Knowing that someone comes in with a query and I can help them in a positive way and then they go away happy, I think; ah yeah, that’s good.

When did you join the DNPA team and what does your role involve?

So, I joined Dartmoor National Park in April 2022. And I recently completed my apprenticeship, so I am now an official HR officer for Dartmoor.

My role is really varied but some of the main things that I work on are recruitment and onboarding, payroll processing, sickness, absence, handling, and I help organise training for staff.

As a newer part of my role I started helping support our volunteer service, which has allowed me to get involved with lots of new and exciting different projects that I hadn’t known about before, so that’s really nice. It has opened up something new for me as well.

Do you feel you have grown in confidence since being with DNPA?

Yes, definitely 100 percent. I’ve been given lots of opportunities to push myself out of my comfort zone and develop my confidence throughout my apprenticeship and I’ve been really well supported through that.

So never been made to feel like I have to do something but I’ve been supported enough to push myself with my team and other colleagues across the organisation which has given me that confidence that I have developed now.

What has it been like working through the apprentice programme and being offered a role within DNPA after graduation?

Throughout my apprenticeship I’ve had the support or my manager, and my colleagues, along with the support from my tutor at South Devon College and that has obviously helped me to successfully complete the apprenticeship.

For the first year of my apprenticeship I attended college once a week and they were really great sessions as I got to work alongside other people doing the course so we could chat to each other about our different experiences. That was really valuable. I really liked that, having that connection with other people going through the same thing.

Towards the end of the second year, we worked towards completing our N point assessment and I worked on my project which was implementing a new applicant tracking system, and updating the website to our new 'working for us' webpage.

Being offered my role, I was really pleased to be able to continue working here and put all of the skills that I have leant over the past two years into the work that I do now.

Its great, really pleased.?

What would you say to someone who was considering an apprenticeship?

What would I say? I’d say it is a great choice if you want to try something completely new whilst getting really important on the job experience, and you also get paid to learn something new which I think is a really valuable way to learn something

I’d say go for it!

Abbie completed her apprenticeship at DNPA with South Devon College. We do not currently have any apprenticeship opportunities but please keep an eye on our Job Vacancies page for any future job roles.

October 2024