What changes after you graduate? – Avtar Marway

Hi all, it’s Avtar Marway here, back with another blog!
As you may be aware, the theme for recent blogs have been about IBM Apprentices who have graduated out of the apprenticeship scheme and today my blog will be about what changes when you graduate.

When you start your apprenticeship with IBM, you are already considered a permanent IBM employee. You are given a duration of 3 years to complete your apprenticeship, and once these 3 years are complete, your title as an apprentice is taken away, and you are just known as an ‘IBMer’.
When you graduate, you are still considered a permanent IBM employee so there is no change in your status as an IBM employee.

Another thing that doesn’t change when you graduate out of the apprenticeship scheme is your role and service line. Unless you decide to change roles, or request to change your service line, you will still be in the same role that you were in before. This means, you can continue to work in the profession that you would like to after you finish your apprenticeship.

Now, what does change? In IBM, there are different bands, and different levels that you can be. The higher these levels are, the more dependent your role becomes. For example, a higher band role could be a Test Manager role, whereas a lower band role could be a Test Analyst role. When you are an apprentice, you start in an educational band, and progress to the first professional band. Once you have graduated out of the apprenticeship scheme, you can progress up through the bands. However, being in a lower band does not mean you can’t do higher band roles. It just means you will not be in the band that most manager roles etc are already in. You are not limited to specific roles based on your band type.

Another thing that changes is that you’re no longer part of Foundation! As an apprentice, you have an Early Professionals Manager (EPM), who is there to help develop your skills, as well as be your manager at IBM. An EPM is only there for you during your Apprenticeship and while you are in Foundation. Once you have progressed out of the apprenticeship world, you also progress out of Foundation, which means you no longer have an EPM. Instead, you have a PeM which is a People Manager.

Is that all that changes? Nope! There are a few more things… such as not having to complete specific documents like IBM journals which lead toward completing your OCR mapping document. The OCR mapping document is used in the apprenticeship scheme in order to help you complete your Apprenticeship qualification. As you’ve completed your apprenticeship, you will no longer be required to complete these.

I’m sure I’ve given you a few points of what changes and what stays the same when you graduate out of the apprenticeship scheme. And I’m sure, if you’re interested, you’ll want to find out more.
So as usual… feel free to tweet me @AvtarMarway, message me on LinkedIn “Avtar Marway” or email me “AvtarMar@uk.ibm.com, if you have any questions, queries about the IBM Apprenticeship scheme or IBM in general!

Tagged: apprentice, apprenticeship, career, Changes, Equivalent, graduation, ibm, professional, uni