The Induction Process: Week Two

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On Thursday morning, we learnt about brand development. In order to do this, we did a case study on McDonald’s, one of the worlds largest brands. We looked at how the brand began, and how, throughout its development McDonald’shas remained true to its original values of love, family and youth.

We continued with SEO (Search engine optimisation) and how social media can be used to optimise a company’s online presence.

Finally, we touched on java script but decided it would take too long to learn in a short amount of time so continued with our websites again.

 Today (Friday) we finalised our portfolio websites and updated our blogs, all in time to upload them to smart assessor.  

TGIF

The Induction Process: Week Two

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Tuesday saw the initial creation of our portfolio website. Using the skills we had learnt on Monday, we began building our banners, footers and navigation bars. Everyone took a while to get their head around the functions of “Dreamweaver” and consequently, building the website continued all day.

On Wednesday, we learnt about networking. We discovered the names of various topologies such as bus, ring, star and mesh networks. As well as this, we learnt about the components of a network.  Much of this I had learnt at GCSE and A Level on my ICT course but it helped to refresh my memory. This presentation was given to us by Anton, another advisor from Agilisys who specialises in the technical side of IT.

 

The Induction Process: Week Two

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The second week began a lot more comfortably in comparison to the first week. Everyone knew each other and had made friends.

Unlike last week, this week we are in Agilisys’ Hammersmith offices. As I look out of the window now, I can see a row of 10 parked police vans in a car park of what looks to be a police station. Just beyond that, I see a class building; it resembles the clinical air which surrounds the buildings at South Quay. This is the only building of its kinds at Hammersmith, strangely. I expected the inverse of what it is. I expected East-London’s Tower Hamlets to be much less, suave in comparison with swanky West London, although not much compares to the area around Canary Wharf with regards to a corporate environment. The advantage of being at Hammersmith however is that we are a five minute walk from the broadway meaning we have a much larger choice for lunch.

This week has been focused on the Internet and website building, commencing with HTML code on Monday. This jogged my memory from learning the basics some 5 years ago in an ICT. This time around, I listened and took notes, meaning I can now tell you that tags are written with these symbols: <> around them and to begin a new line on a website, one must begin with <br> and end with </br>

We then began playing around with Dreamweaver, learning the basic layout of a website, and creating a personalised version of the generic banner, footer, three container site. 

The Induction Process: Friday

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…and continued into Friday. The pdf document consisted of 37 questions about legislation, company policies, our rights as employees, and acts which have shaped what is expected of us in the work place. It completing this lasted the whole day, however our advisor broke up the monotony with presentations every so often throughout the day.

So the first week was finished; looking back on it, an awful lot was crammed in to the week, although it seemed like everything was spread out between 9 am to 5 pm everyday. Now just another 59 weeks to go.

The Induction Process: Thursday

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Thursday began with an ICT initial assessment which tested out basic IT skills, including Database systems, Spreadsheets, Email and Word processor. Most of us achieved level 2 in all areas of computing, with the exception of email, in which surprisingly, nearly everyone only managed to achieve a level 1. Having said that, the test was based on an operating system from 2003, therefore some questions where difficult to relate to the Windows 7 system we’ve been used to.

After the morning break, we were treated to some knowledge of how to manage our money,courtesy of Barclays . After being shown videos of various scenarios involving young people and money problems, we completed a document designed to help us to forecast our income and plan our spending.

This was followed by the dreaded beginning of the “Employee Rights and Responsibilities” segment of our induction. Having been informed that the ERR would take a whole day to complete, no one was looking forward to learning about what we were entitled to, and what was expected of us at work. The document would last the remaining three hours of the day…

The Induction Process: Wednesday

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Wednesday , we discussed careers. The morning consisted of researching the kind of jobs our apprenticeships could lead to, what other qualifications we may require and, what we were most interested in, the kind of salary we’d be on. After this, we talked about our options were after finishing the apprenticeship in a year’s time. My aim is to get into digital copywriting  or digital content writing. Working with Flame PR in this sense is helpful as I will be able to develop my writing skills even further by hopefully taking part in writing press releases, articles and the company’s blog.

After this, we discussed “study skills” and spoke about the best way to learn things and revise them. This was done as a class discussion , allowing a range of different ideas and experiences to be expressed amongst the group.  We then did some memory tests which showed us how well we were able to listen to, understand and then relay information. 

The induction process: Tuesday

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Health and safety, was the topic on Tuesday, along with equality and diversity.  

The health and safety presentation taught us a lot of statistics about being safe in the work place, including the shocking figure that over 200 people are killed at work a year on average, and the fact that a serious injury occurs every 17 minutes at work. This presentation also consisted of the procedures which we should follow both at work and at training when an accident or emergency, such as a fire, occurs. We were also taught the importance of equality and diversity amongst people in the work place and how safeguarding affects this. 

The Induction Process: Monday

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Arriving at the Exchange Tower for the second time was somewhat comforting on Monday. I knew which floor would lead me to the Agilisys offices on my ascent in the glass lift, I knew what the “Knowledge Studio” looked like and more importantly, I wasn’t worried about the battle I would have with the barcode scanners to let me into the building (I am a barcode scanning pro now!)

Having arrived late due to the worst storm since 1987, which of course caused a nation-wide pandemic because of the U.K’s inability to effectively deal with any weather slightly out-of the norm, I entered the studio filled with twenty 16-18 year olds around an hour and a half late.

Everyone received usernames and passwords and after a slow start, the induction was underway. We began with an “ice- breaker” where I got to know Jake, my partner in the activity, as well as 4 facts about everyone else in the group. After a break, we completed a hefty amount of paper-work detailing personal information, terms and information of our placement. When everyone had returned from lunch, we took the Edexcel Maths and English initial assessment tests, most completing them to the highest level. Day one: finished.