How an Apprenticeship is Supporting my Career Change | by Toni-Marie Bonser

I have spent almost a decade in various project management roles in the market research industry. Each company I worked for was different from the last, but the role was essentially the same – managing surveys. 

The process was the same, the suppliers were the same, and even my colleagues were sometimes the same! From my perspective, my potential career trajectory was limited – but I was enjoying myself. Market research is a fun industry to work in. 

However, when the Covid-19 pandemic hit and we were all working from home full time, it confirmed to me that it was my colleagues that made my jobs enjoyable, not the jobs themselves. 

That is until I joined the research tech company, Walr, and got the opportunity to stay in the industry but pivot out of survey project management. 

Being the Change

I got talking to the CTO one day about the tech department. We were a start-up company with a few developers, a QA, and a CTO. The company had ambitious goals to create a world-class, industry-leading market research software that would support both our business and external clients to run online surveys. 

The gap was clear. However, there was no bridge between the tech team and the rest of the business that could facilitate and enable us to deliver on these ambitious goals. What they needed was a project manager.

Seizing on the opportunity to use my industry knowledge and operational skills, I immediately offered to step in, and within three months I had pivoted out of my survey project management role, into an agile project management role. 

Getting Stuck In

In reality, the job encompassed about three different roles. Firstly, I played scrum master for the development team. I trained myself in scrum methodology, implemented it, and scaled it to two scrum teams (so far). I also incorporated product owners and a designer into the process to further bridge the gap. 

Secondly, I worked with the operations department to set up a support service to assist users of the platform, both external and internal. 

My new tech-based role created a kind of halo effect, which led to the third part of my job which is ad-hoc, in-person IT assistance.

Legitimising my role

One year into this role, with incredible insight into the world of tech, the opportunity to do a Level 4 Business Transformation apprenticeship with Multiverse came up. I researched the content of the course, and it covered a lot of what I was already doing, including agile working, managing project requirements, process improvement, and change management. It also included a lot of what I wasn’t doing, such as cost-benefit analysis and analysing a market space. I knew this would be valuable knowledge for the future.

After some reservations about whether I had the time, and with my manager’s full support, I enrolled onto the course. My main driver for applying was, at the time, I felt I was getting all this great experience in a new role, but I didn’t have much to officially back it up. 

I do not come from a technical background, at all. I don’t even have a GCSE in IT! Walr funded my Scrum Master Level, 1 which was a good start, but I liked the idea of getting an apprenticeship to validate what I was doing. I believed it would give me more of a professional standing in this role, and any similar roles in the future.

Where am I now?

As of writing, I am about halfway through and have made a tangible, positive impact on the company by applying my learnings. The modules around agile working, gap analysis, and process mapping have been of particular use to me, and I used these skills in my normal day-to-day many times. 

As the business evolved, we continually revised and refined processes, and what I learned helped me ensure the tech team was set up for success, and provided me with professional validation. 

Your stories!

I am genuinely fascinated by other people’s stories of their own career transformations. They are proof that success doesn't follow one fixed, defined path. Your experiences can inspire others. Share your story in the comments – I would love to hear from you!

Toni-Marie Bonser is a Level 4 Business Transformation apprentice at Multiverse based in London. 

She has spent the last 10 years working in the market research industry in various project management roles. She has recently pivoted her career, and her most recent role was Tech Team Lead at a research technology company. 

In her spare time, she enjoys reading, watching true crime documentaries, and sightseeing.