Supply Chain Apprentice

Why did you choose an apprenticeship in the pharmaceutical industry?

So when I chose my apprenticeship, I weighed my options as I had an interest within project management and the choice of different industries within pharmaceuticals, hospitality and it. Ultimately I chose an apprenticeship at AstraZeneca as I wanted to be part of an organisation that makes a difference to the world by helping patients. After looking at a few different pharmaceutical companies AstraZeneca's views were most aligned with my own and it made the most sense to come work here.

What does your apprenticeship involve?

My apprenticeship is within Supply Chain Management within the clinical supply chain within biopharmaceutical development. I'm currently coming towards the end of my third year and working on my final year dissertation. So the role involves all aspects of clinical trial management and this involves drug manufacturing, packaging, labour and distribution, finance sourcing, and the use of IT systems for modelling so a lot of range of skills and in the role has given me opportunity to experience real life problems which can be discussed within my academic work.

How did you hear about the apprenticeship opportunity?

So apprenticeships were not openly advertised in my school as they are now. So before I actually applied to the apprenticeship I had the attention of going to university. However, I took some time to really look at my options after results day as I did not get into my top choice and I had already started building a preference towards an apprenticeship. I found the AZ's at apprenticeship posted on the government website and immediately applied as I saw, it was a great opportunity even though it was almost three hours away from my hometown. Since then, I've loved it. I'm happy so I believe and I'm really happy that they're more than the advertised as honestly it's such a great scheme.

How has the COVID-19 pandemic influenced your experience?

So the COVID-19 pandemic was a drastic change to my way of working as it was for many others. In my personal experience, the way of working was a big step up. I switched from training in person ,after only being in the company for six months, to essentially having to meet over calls, adapting the way I've worked, my workload was completed and just training without that kind of extra support you'd be given if you were in the office. So in LCS dispatching function I work in it was all hands on deck and if you weren't supporting a vaccine study, you're supporting your buddy team, ensuring all the workload was spread out evenly and that all functions of the supply chain were running as usual.

What are your future career goals?

So after my apprenticeship, the plan is to gain some further experience at AstraZeneca, learning about processes, about my current team and the pharmaceutical industry as a whole and being able to apply sustainable working practices. This is an area of focus within my dissertation and has also led me to an interest of completing an MBA post graduation.