Apprenticeship Knowledge into Practice - Emma Cussans

Hi Emma, Let’s start with you telling us about yourself - can you tell us about the organisation you work for and your role?

I started at the company Unilever in September 2021, Unilever is a very sustainability-driven global company, their focus is shown in their purpose statement: ‘to make sustainable living commonplace'. 

I have been in the Category Team (part of Customer Development) for just over 4 months now; this team works with Unilever's customers, the retailers, to produce insights that help to show the retailer how to grow a certain category (for example the category Homecare or Foods) and increase spend value within the category. 

You're Currently on the Digital Business Accelerator programme, can you tell us a little bit more about that and what made you decide to do this course/how is it relevant to your role?

I am in my fourth month of the Digital Business Accelerator programme. I decided to take this course, as I wanted to earn a qualification without going to University, so an apprenticeship was an ideal situation. In college I enjoyed maths and structured data, therefore when I applied for this programme I thought it would be a great qualification that I could work towards. 

This course is linked to my role very well, as in my day-to-day role in the Category team, we create insights and find trends from data, to show our retailers, therefore the assignments I have been set as part of this apprenticeship have been very useful. I have learned shortcuts and new ways to work around excel, that I have later on used in the role. 

Can you tell us how you have applied your learnings from your apprenticeship to your role? Are there any times, in particular, you have done this interestingly or innovatively?

In one of my assignments, I was asked to show how to clean and validate a dataset, after being shown these earlier in a Masterclass with a Multiverse Coach, giving examples and evidence of how to complete these steps. I learned how to identify and remove any duplicates in data; apply filters etc. Afterward within my work I could confidently apply filters and remove duplicates when I completed a task for my line manager as part of my role. 
Learning these skills has allowed me to take initiative in my work and add extra detail when my line manager sets me tasks; I can confidently complete these on top of the original task. 

And what was the outcome of this? Did you learn anything or would you have done anything differently in the future?
The outcome of this was very positive, my line manager was impressed with the work I produced; he also showed me further excel shortcuts to improve my knowledge even further. 

Do you feel as if your apprenticeship has enhanced your current role and future career paths?

Yes, this apprenticeship has been a brilliant way to start my office career, as so far this has given me the knowledge needed to improve and excel in my current role. Hopefully setting me up with an advantage for the future, as when I finish this course I would like to apply for a degree apprenticeship; if I keep performing to my highest ability, I will achieve this qualification and then have the skills and qualities to move onto another programme.  

And finally, how do you feel the Multiverse Community has enabled you to succeed in your role and apprenticeship? E.g Networking, filling in skills gaps, challenging imposter syndrome etc. 

The Multiverse Community hub has really helped me to push myself in many ways. I signed up to a Mentoring programme, within the community hub, and I have had several calls with a mentor outside of my company, which has been very helpful in learning about the business world in general, as well as helping me improve in the areas that I discuss with my mentor. 

In addition to that, I have signed up to many community events run by Multiverse, which vary in their subject, such as ‘Professionalism’ and ‘Writing Skills’ etc. these have been very helpful to hear professionals talk about important ways to improve and why. So overall, the Multiverse Community Hub has been a great help and very beneficial to me.