Apprenticeship Week: Ryan Hill

Meet Ryan, one of our RGU Graduate Apprentices. Ryan is currently studying BA (Hons) in Business Management, whilst working full time as a Supply Chain Coordinator. Starting his journey with Expro in the Certification team, Ryan quickly progressed through the department before deciding to take on a new challenge and sign up to the Graduate Apprenticeship.

• Tell us a little bit about your position and responsibilities at Expro

I am training to become a Capital Expenditure Buyer, to allow me to progress from my current role of Supply Chain Coordinator which I have been in since October 2018. However, I’ve been an employee with Expro since April 2012 and held numerous roles within the Certification department.

As a Capex Buyer, my main task is to interact with project management personnel to plan and prioritise purchasing activities to support product lines on a global scale.

• How have you evolved from your first day at Expro until now?

I joined Expro when I was 18 years old and have been with the company for almost eight years. I started as an Assistant Certification Officer, progressed onto a Certification Officer and eventually to supervising the department. During this time I was also undertaking a diploma in quality management, I completed three out of the nine modules on this course. I then made the move from the Certification department to the Supply Chain team, where the opportunity became available to undertake the Graduate Apprenticeship in Business Management and decided this was a more desirable than the diploma qualification. Since joining the Supply Chain department, I have thoroughly enjoyed my role and I am excited to see what the future holds as a Capex Buyer.

• What made you apply for the apprenticeship?

My line manager made me aware of the Graduate Apprenticeship opportunity when joining the Supply Chain department in October 2018 and felt this was a great opportunity. The process to join the course was very straightforward; I expressed my interest to my line manager, submitted the application, along with a personal statement, and was accepted on the course.

• What do you enjoy most/least about your job?

I thoroughly enjoy that I get to interact with numerous different personnel throughout Expro during project meetings. These discussions often include the project managers, project co-ordinators, purchasing and engineering personnel.

My least enjoyable aspect of my job would be multi-tasking numerous different daily tasks, however this can also be rewarding when all tasks are completed at the end of a day’s work.

• What is something surprising you’ve learned?

Since starting the Graduate Apprenticeship, my ability to issue business reports to a high standard has vastly improved.

• How do you feel you have benefited from the Graduate Apprenticeship scheme?

This course has helped me to gain an overall understanding of business management. It has also pushed me to interface with personnel within Expro who I wouldn’t normally deal with on a daily basis. This has been extremely enjoyable and I have gained a lot of knowledge within Expro from speaking to these people and through my online studies with Robert Gordon’s University.