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Business, Administration and Law

Business administrators have a highly transferable set of knowledge, skills and behaviours that can be applied in all sectors. This includes small and large businesses alike; from the public sector, private sector and charitable sector. The role may involve working independently or as part of a team and will involve developing, implementing, maintaining and improving administrative services. Business administrators develop key skills and behaviours to support their own progression towards management responsibilities.

The responsibilities of the role are to support and engage with different parts of the organisation and interact with internal or external customers. With a focus on adding value, the role of business administrator contributes to the efficiency of an organisation, through support of functional areas, working across teams and resolving issues as requested. The flexibility and responsiveness required allows the apprentice to develop a wide range of skills.

The business administrator is expected to deliver their responsibilities efficiently and with integrity – showing a positive attitude. The role involves demonstrating strong communication skills (both written and verbal) and adopting a proactive approach to developing skills. The business administrator is also expected to show initiative, managing priorities and own time, problem-solving skills, decision-making and the potential for people management responsibilities through mentoring or coaching others.

The role of a customer service practitioner is to deliver high quality products and services to the customers of their organisation. Your core responsibility will be to provide a high quality service to customers which will be delivered from the workplace, digitally, or through going out into the customer’s own locality. These may be one-off or routine contacts and include dealing with orders, payments, offering advice, guidance and support, meet-and-greet, sales, fixing problems, after care, service recovery or gaining insight through measuring customer satisfaction. You may be the first point of contact and work in any sector or organisation type.

Your actions will influence the customer experience and their satisfaction with your organisation. You will demonstrate excellent customer service skills and behaviours as well as product and/or service knowledge when delivering to your customers. You provide service in line with the organisation’s customer service standards and strategy and within appropriate regulatory requirements. Your customer interactions may cover a wide range of situations and can include; face-to-face, telephone, post, email, text and social media.

Duration The apprenticeship will take a minimum of 12 months to complete

Entry requirements Apprentices will be required to have or achieve level 1 English and Maths and to have taken level 2 English and Maths tests prior to completion of their Apprenticeship.

Link to professional registration Completion of this apprenticeship will lead to eligibility to join the Institute of Customer Service as an Individual member at Professional level.

Level This apprenticeship standard is set at Level 2.

The main purpose of a customer service specialist is to be a ‘professional’ for direct customer support within all sectors and organisation types. You are an advocate of Customer Service who acts as a referral point for dealing with more complex or technical customer requests, complaints, and queries. You are often an escalation point for complicated or ongoing customer problems. As an expert in your organisation’s products and/or services, you share knowledge with your wider team and colleagues. You gather and analyse data and customer information that influences change and improvements in service. Utilising both organisational and generic IT systems to carry out your role with an awareness of other digital technologies. This could be in many types of environment including contact centres, retail, webchat, service industry or any customer service point.

Duration: The apprenticeship will take a minimum of 15 months to complete depending on experience.

Entry Requirements: Organisations will set their own entry criteria and are more likely to select individuals with more advanced inter- personal skills, experience of working with customers in some capacity. You must achieve level 2 English and maths prior to taking the end point assessment.

Link to professional registration: Completion of this apprenticeship will lead to eligibility to join the Institute of Customer Service as an Individual member at Professional level. Should you choose to progress on a customer service career path, you may be eligible for further professional membership including management.

Level: Level 3.

There were an estimated 5.5 million private sector businesses in the UK at the start of 2016. Despite the recent economic difficulties, the trend has been steadily increasing in the business population. Today’s global economy brings with it a wealth of new markets, shrinking profit margins and increasing operating expenses; the need for good business administration has never been greater.

In order to have a truly successful business, you need to provide good customer service. It is believed that 96% of unhappy customers don’t ever complain; however, 91% of those simply leave and never come back. The main reason for customer churn is not price but bad customer service. Handling a business’s issues in a professional and courteous manner is an essential day-to-day task.

Strong team leadership is essential for providing guidance, direction and instruction within a group and inevitably leads to more effective teamwork and more motivated employees. Being able to manage a team effectively is critical in the current job market, where employee productivity and team outcomes are closely monitored.

Details of standard Occupation

A Team leader and supervisor is a first line management role, with operational and project responsibilities or responsibility for managing a team to deliver a clearly defined outcome. They provide direction, instructions and guidance to ensure the achievement of set goals. Working in the private, public or third sector and in all sizes of organisation, specific responsibilities will vary, but the knowledge, skills and behaviours needed will be the same whatever the role.

Key responsibilities are likely to include supporting, managing and developing team members, managing projects, planning and monitoring workloads and resources, delivering operational plans, resolving problems, and building relationships internally and externally.

Typical job titles: Supervisor, Team leader, Project officer, Shift supervisor, Foreperson, and Shift manager.

Entry requirements The entry requirement for this apprenticeship will be decided by each employer, but may typically be five GCSEs at Grade C or higher.

Duration Typically this apprenticeship will take 12 – 18 months

Qualifications Apprentices without level 2 English and maths will need to achieve this level prior to taking the end-point assessment.

Progression On completion, apprentices may choose to register as Associate Members with the Chartered Management Institute and/or the Institute of leadership and management, to support their professional career development and progression.

Level Level 3.