One Year On as a RAD Apprentice

It has been just over a year since I started at RADAPEX as a Digital and Technology Solutions Apprentice and I thought it would be a nice idea to document all the knowledge and experience I have gained throughout my time here. In this blog I’ll cover both the things I have learnt in the workplace, as well as each of the four modules I have taken in my first year at Leeds Beckett University.

Background

Before I begin, I would like to tell you a bit about myself; I graduated college in 2022 with A levels in Chemistry, Biology, and (most importantly!) Computer Science. With all of my friends looking forward to starting their first year of university, I couldn’t help but feel a level of uncertainty. I wasn’t sure that doing a full time degree was the next step for me, so I decided to take a gap year. I spent the following months working part time jobs and travelling around Europe whenever I got the chance. When I returned home in the new year, I decided to start researching degree apprenticeships; the usual advantages which I’m sure you have heard before (no debt, earn while you learn, etc.) all applied, but I was most excited by the opportunity to gain insight from senior developers. Being able to see how actual, running production code was produced, from the start of the development lifecycle right through to the end made me eager to start applying. That’s when I came across RADAPEX, a local company that was offering the chance to be a part of a growing team on the forefront of software development.

My First Month in the Workplace

I started at RADAPEX by going through several online training courses, up-skilling on PL/SQL, Git, and cybersecurity. These first few weeks were crucial to my development as an engineer, I learnt how to build clean, efficient code that would be suitable for customer facing applications deployed in production environments. I also learnt about AWS, I was told I would soon begin training towards my first certification: AWS Cloud Practitioner. This training was provided by AWS and provided me with a basic understanding of cloud principles, setting me up to understand RADAPEX’s application architecture. Shortly after this, me and a fellow apprentice would go on to study and achieve Amazon’s next step up: the Associate level offerings. I studied along the Developer Associate pathway whereas my colleague studied along the Solutions Architect pathway, all of which were fully funded by RADAPEX!

Personal Projects

Once my skills were up to scratch, I was asked to begin research into the world of automated testing. I was incredibly excited about this opportunity, as it meant I would get to use my knowledge of writing Javascript code, something which I thoroughly enjoy doing in my own personal time at home. For the first few days of this venture, I was closely mentored by one of our senior developers, but I was then encouraged to carry out my own research, discovering new methods of testing on my own and implementing them within our applications. This project allowed me to start feeling comfortable in producing my own work and making my own contributions to the company, without the stress of affecting any end users.

Starting the Client Project

Equipped with my newfound knowledge of PL/SQL and automated testing, I was able to enter the world of one of our long-time clients. This would be my first experience in dealing with real, customer facing applications, something which I was keen to get started with. My first job was to develop a set of tests for a newly created visitor booking system, a large task that would span from quick fail cases to complex data generation scripts testing entire sections of the app. These tests were crucial to ensuring the validity of any changes made to the app and are still maintained throughout the releases today. 

Through starting on the client project, I was able to meet countless new people and exercise my communication skills, a skill which I can carry with me throughout my entire professional career. I found picking up support tickets for our legacy applications to be extremely helpful in this; I would assist in managing the service queue, answering customer queries and investigating underlying application issues. As well as teaching me interpersonal skills, it also greatly enhanced my debugging capabilities, I became very familiar with APEX’s debugging system and our own bespoke error log.

As well as building test suites, I was also given the opportunity to build new features for our APEX applications. At first I was given small tickets that were peer reviewed by more senior members of the team, but I slowly graduated to making larger contributions, developing entire new workflows in complex apps I had never seen before. This allowed me to develop my PL/SQL skills even further, making me into a proficient APEX developer who is able to produce valuable changes with minimal supervision.

First Year at Leeds Beckett’s

In September 2025, I started my first year of university on the Digital and Technology Solutions course. The modules I would be taking in my first year were:

• Introduction to Computer Programming (ICP) 

• Foundations of Computer Networking (FCN)

• Database Management Systems (DMS)

• The Digital Business (TDB)

The ICP module, my favourite of the bunch, was delivered in C, a language which I only had minimal experience in previously. Our lecturer delivered the course in a well paced manner, explaining syntax and libraries that would help us write our end of module assignment: a terminal based stock control system featuring file manipulation and dynamic memory allocation. Each lecturer provided close one to one support for all students and taught their respective topics with the highest level of expertise, which helped me to achieve first class results in all assignments.

I will soon begin my second year where we will further our knowledge on software development, with modules covering Java and React, as well as an introduction to Cyber Security!

Present Day

Fast forward to today and I have worked on countless applications for the client, having led many successful production deployments and now getting started on my summer project for university! My first year as a degree apprentice has equipped me with an invaluable skillset that will set me up for future success as a software developer, the amount I have learnt through both the workplace and university has exceeded all of my expectations I had coming into this course. I look forward to seeing where this apprenticeship will take me next year!

If you are interested in learning more about becoming a degree apprentice at RADAPEX, visit this page!