An apprentice supervisor helps manage a team of team members by offering appropriate feedback, explaining corporate goals, analysing work performance, identifying areas for development, and providing training opportunities. They also communicate company goals, project deadlines, and personnel performance to the management team, whilst utilising industry and business knowledge to provide a customer-focused experience.
Responsibilities
Throughout your apprenticeship, you may help:
- plan workloads and rotas
- allocate tasks to team members
- brief teams on targets, initiatives and policy changes
- monitor and report on team performance
- carry out individual appraisals
- keep up to date with regulations.
Salary
Salaries vary across sectors and locations.
- Apprentice supervisors start on a basic annual salary of £20,000.
- Experienced and qualified supervisors can earn £30,000.
Working hours
You are in the intermediate to lower levels of management as a supervisor. While some supervisors work 40 hours per week, mid-management roles might need up to 50. This is because upper management relies heavily on supervisors to oversee the work of individual employees. This necessitates long workdays and weeks.
You may get an idea of how many hours you need to work by looking at other people’s demands in your field. For example, if all employees are expected to work long hours, you should expect to work as long as, if not longer, many other employees. In contrast, if most people in your fieldwork a 40-hour week, you may expect your schedule to be similar.
Qualifications
Qualifications you can achieve as an apprentice supervisor include:
Level 3 Team Leader or Supervisor – Entry requirements for this level include 5 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C), or equivalent, including English and maths, for an advanced apprenticeship.
Skills
On a supervisor apprenticeship, you’ll learn:
- leadership skills
- the ability to motivate and manage staff
- the ability to organise your time and workload
- to be thorough and pay attention to detail
- the ability to use your initiative
- patience and the ability to remain calm in stressful situations
- excellent verbal communication skills
- business management skills
- to be able to use a computer and the main software packages competently
Work environment
Your working environment is determined by the industry in which you work. A construction supervisor, for example, works on a construction site. An office supervisor works mainly in an office environment. At restaurants, a kitchen supervisor works behind the scenes, while a wait staff supervisor works in the front of the house. A manufacturing or warehouse supervisor spends long hours in climate-controlled surroundings. The work involves minimal travel since most duties are performed in the same location. However, you must also be physically present to carry out your duties; thus, you cannot work from home.
Career prospects
Supervisors work in middle management, where they gain experience that will prepare them for a successful career in leadership roles. You might, for example, rise to a management role or other senior leadership positions.
You may advance to a project manager, operations manager, or branch manager as a supervisor.
Some specialise in a particular industry and progress to management positions, such as restaurant or hotel manager, factory manager, or construction manager.