The Customer Service Apprenticeship offers the opportunity to develop excellent customer service skills that will give a good foundation for any type of role that includes dealing with customers in any type of industry. You will be employed and have regular day release to build your portfolio and access tutor support. Your work will include a range of customer service activities which will enable you to select units relevant to your role, for example, dealing with visitors and reception duties, working in retail, use the telephone, sales and marketing role, hospitality to name a few. A person with good customer serice skills is essential in any business. If you enjoy dealing with people, answering queries and like to work in a structured way, then this may be a good opportunity for you to progress and develop your skills.

Apprenticeships are an excellent way of gaining qualifications and workplace experience. As an employee, you can earn as you learn and you gain practical skills from the workplace.

You will attend college for one day to gain class room based qualifications. These will give you the underpinning knowledge that you need to build up your skills in a customer service role. The college based courses are more generic to enable you to gain a general knowledge of this role. These courses are assessed through formal practical assessments at the end of each unit/subject.

In the workplace you will work with an assessor to gain a work-based qualification. This will enable you to demonstrate your competence in a practical way. You will gather evidence into a portfolio and your assessor will advice and guide you in this and will then assess that you have met the criteria in each area of competence.

You do need to be employed in a customer service role to become a customer service apprentice. The apprenticeship is a partnership between you, the employer and college.

To see the full details of each of the main qualifications of the apprenticeship, please follow the links in the next section.