“I learned many skills, new tools and business information that I will be able to take with me anywhere I go in the business world.”
BUSINESS ADMIN APPRENTICE | PEAK TRANSLATIONS
What is your job title?
Assistant Project Manager
How has the apprenticeship improved your life?
Being given the chance to do an apprenticeship itself was a great moment for me as it was very unexpected. Through doing the apprenticeship work, it has enabled me to gain a better understanding of how businesses function. Being taken on full-time since the apprenticeship here at Peak Translations has completely changed my life. Who would have thought that knocking on a door and asking for some work experience would lead to an amazing apprenticeship offer and a full-time job! I am so grateful for what Helen has done for me and I hope my hard work at Peak Translations will hopefully prove this.
How will the apprenticeship training continue to impact on you in the future?
Through doing the Business Administration Apprenticeship, I learned many skills, new tools and business information that I will be able to take with me anywhere I go in the business world.
How has the apprenticeship impacted on your organisation?
I believe I am the first apprentice here at Peak Translations, which essentially lead to the creation of the Project Co-ordinator role (my original role), which was, in essence, to aid the project management team in their day-to-day tasks and make work more efficient for them. To date, I still carry out many of the same tasks, but with the added role of actual project management. I feel my role and work is a great asset to the business and I am a valuable team member and employee.
How has Damar’s approach to training contributed to the impact of the apprenticeship on you and your organisation?
I think the way Damar set out the apprenticeship was very streamlined, user-friendly and compact, resulting in the apprenticeship being easy to follow. It enabled me to have a good balance of apprenticeship work, as well as the main work I was doing for Peak Translations, which was important, not only for me, but the business itself.
Why did you decide to do an apprenticeship?
I originally hadn’t actually intended to undertake an apprenticeship, nor was it something on my mind at the time of doing my fortnight’s work experience at Peak Translations. I was actually on holiday at the time when I got a call saying the they would like me back to do some paid work, an offer I couldn’t refuse! Shortly after a Project Manager vacancy became available, which I went for, but due to my lack of experience, I didn’t quite cut it. However, Helen still wanted to keep me at Peak Translations, and she offered me the chance to do an apprenticeship with Damar as a way to gain the relevant experience needed to fulfil the role’s criteria, leading to my current role – Assistant Project Manager.
What activities do you do in your day-to-day role?
Each day is very different in the translation industry, meaning I get to do a wide range of activities. Among these are creating purchase orders for suppliers, processing invoices, communicating with clients to assist with their language requirements, using different IT packages, reporting monthly on new leads, and vendor management, to name but a few!
What do you enjoy most about your job?
The most enjoyable part of the job is, without a doubt, being able to work with and read so many different types of documents in so many different languages. From the more common German, French, Italian and Spanish all the way to unheard of Soninke, Wolof, Icelandic, Tigrinya and Kazakh. It is the perfect way to be able to express my passion for languages and culture. In addition to this, having a high level of German understanding and recently starting Finnish makes reading documents in those languages all the more interesting.
What are your future career plans?
Since starting to learn German in high school some 9 years ago, I always knew I wanted to take a career path in the language industry. Working for the longest running and most reputable language service providers in the UK, I feel quite at home already. I haven’t thought past this stage in my life yet career-wise, but if I did, it would possibly be to experience the freelance translation side of things, using solely my German and hopefully Finnish to help companies such as Peak Translations help clients and individuals communicate more effectively in foreign languages.