Beatrix Weiga
Hi, my name is Bea. I’m a Digital Media Apprentice, but I originally started my journey with Sky in Newcastle as a Customer Service Apprentice.
In the Contact Centre, it was all about coming in, being on the calls and speaking to people throughout the day – helping them when it comes to fixing their problems and meeting their needs when it came to complaints.
Contact Centres are all about learning how to deal with people. I saw this opportunity of working within the Contact Centre of learning how to build my people skills. I understood that the skills that I was going to learn within the Contact Centre were skills that I was going to need anywhere that I was going to go to.
‘The culture within the Newcastle Content Centre is actually amazing.’
It’s different to what you possibly think a Contact Centre could be like. There’s a lot of laughter around. It’s not just a thing of just everyone heads down, calling and that’s it for the day. I remember celebrating in Newcastle the craziest things, you know them days that you’ve never heard of that exist like; World Cheese Day, World Chocolate Day, Pancake day, (I mean that’s probably more of a famous one).
There was just so many things that we constantly were doing to make sure that it wasn’t a boring atmosphere. To make sure that everyone was engaging with each other. Making sure that there was that friendly culture of getting to know each other, getting to know people that work with you, getting to even know how people can help you in different ways.
The environment and culture of the Contact Centre in Newcastle is definitely what attracted me to Sky, 100 percent.
‘I was very surprised like literally from day one.’
In my mind, I was literally gonna walk into a place and there was just gonna be a lot of different tables, everyone in their own little box with screens around them and everything. Because of all the the culture, it literally creates a complete different picture of what you possibly could think a Contact Centre is like.
It really wasn’t a thing of ‘we’re all just there doing our own thing; calling, then we get up and go, we leave and that’s it’. It was knowing that there’s people around.
‘There was a lot of laughter.’
There’s a lot of joking around and a lot of laughter. Even in between calls, talking about difficult calls that you have – so getting help on that as well. There’s a lot of things that are done in between to also help you keep engaged keep up the energy during the day and engage with those that are around you.
The coolest thing about working for Sky is that sense of pride that you can have in a way of knowing that you’re part of of something that is everywhere. You’re part of helping people, especially within the Contact Centre. For example; people call you because they have a problem,. It’s ending the call knowing that ‘Okay, I actually managed to fix your problem – because of me you’re now going to be able to watch TV!’.
‘It’s meeting a lot of different people from a lot of different backgrounds.’
I’ve met people from all across the UK in the time that have been with Sky. One of the greatest and coolest things about Sky as well is that I can 100 percent tell you that Sky is a company that cares about their people.
Even now that I’m working from home, and since we started working from home, Sky has been trying to make sure that; ‘Yes, you’re working from home, but we’re still here’.
The fact that they care about their people so much just makes you feel welcome.
‘I would definitely 100 percent recommend an apprenticeship at Sky.’
I think when growing up, I always had that type of mentality that in order for you to make it in life, you need to go to university. That’s just so not the case.
Apprenticeships are definitely great if you want to have that balance of learning and working at the same time. Building on your skills, meeting people and learning of the experiences of other people – as well because knowing that I’m learning whilst I’m working.
It also means that I have people around me who are already in these roles, people who are already experienced, so I can also learn from their experiences. Apprenticeships are definitely something I would recommend.
