Business Development Apprentice
Barclay & Mathieson Ltd
Shoeburyness (SS3 9RE)
Closes on Monday 15 September 2025
Posted on 1 August 2025
Contents
Summary
We’re looking for a motivated and enthusiastic individual to join our team as a Business Development Trainee. This is a fantastic opportunity to earn while you learn, working towards a Level 3 Customer Service Specialist apprenticeship.
- Wage
-
£13,741 for your first year, then could increase depending on your age
National Minimum Wage rate for apprentices
- Training course
- Customer service specialist (level 3)
- Hours
-
Monday - Friday, 9.00am - 5.00pm (1 hour lunch)
35 hours a week
- Start date
-
Tuesday 16 September 2025
- Duration
-
1 year 3 months
- Positions available
-
1
Work
Most of your apprenticeship is spent working. You’ll learn on the job by getting hands-on experience.
What you'll do at work
You’ll gain hands-on experience in customer service and business development, supporting the team in building and maintaining strong customer relationships, identifying new opportunities, and helping ensure excellent service delivery across the business.
For the first three months, you’ll spend time rotating across key departments (e.g. operations, warehouse, purchasing, credit control, transport). This will give you a strong understanding of how the business works and how each function supports the customer journey, equipping you with the knowledge to succeed in a future sales role.
After this rotation, you’ll move into the commercial team, initially focusing on re-engaging non-spend customer accounts, learning how to build relationships, promote products, and drive new business.
Key Responsibilities:
- Take part in a structured 3-month rotation across departments to build core business knowledge
- Re-engage and manage a portfolio of non-spend customers, with support from the sales team
- Learn how to identify, research, and qualify new sales opportunities
- Build and maintain accurate customer contact records using our internal systems
- Assist in contacting customers via phone and email to promote relevant products and services
- Follow up on quotations and track progress of opportunities
- Support order processing and work closely with internal teams to deliver a seamless customer experience
- Learn about our full product range and value-added services like processing
- Gather customer and market feedback to inform the team of new opportunities or challenges
- Respond to internal and external communications professionally and promptly
- Occasionally accompany experienced sales colleagues on customer visits
- Complete all training modules and assessments as required by the apprenticeship provider
What You'll Learn:
- How the business operates across different functions.
Sales fundamentals, including relationship-building and lead conversion - In-depth product knowledge, with a focus on steel types, grades, and specifications to confidently advise customers
- Product knowledge and how to identify customer needs
- Commercial systems and order processing
- How to manage and grow a customer ledger
- Key soft skills such as communication, organisation, and time management
What We’re Looking For:
- Confident and professional communicator
- Willingness to learn and take on new challenges
- Strong attention to detail and organisation
- Positive attitude and team spirit
- GCSEs (or equivalent) in maths and English at grade 4/C or above
- Interest in a long-term career in sales and commercial development
Where you'll work
Metalstock House
Vanguard Way
Shoeburyness
SS3 9RE
Training
Apprenticeships include time away from working for specialist training. You’ll study to gain professional knowledge and skills.
Training provider
THELIGHTBULB LTD
Training course
Customer service specialist (level 3)
Understanding apprenticeship levels (opens in new tab)
What you'll learn
Course contents
- Business focused service delivery: Demonstrate a continuous improvement and future focussed approach to customer service delivery including decision making and providing recommendations or advice
- Business focused service delivery: Resolve complex issues by being able to choose from and successfully apply a wide range of approaches
- Business focused service delivery: Find solutions that meet your organisations needs as well as the customer requirements
- Providing a positive customer experience: Through advanced questioning, listening and summarising negotiate mutually beneficial outcomes
- Providing a positive customer experience: Manage challenging and complicated situations within your level of authority and make recommendations to enable and deliver change to service or strategy
- Providing a positive customer experience: Use clear explanations, provide options and solutions to influence and help customers make choices and agree next steps
- Providing a positive customer experience: Explore and interpret the customer experience to inform and influence achieving a positive result for customer satisfaction
- Providing a positive customer experience: Demonstrate a cost conscious mind-set when meeting customer and the business needs
- Providing a positive customer experience: Identifying where highs and lows of the customer journey produce a range of emotions in the customer
- Providing a positive customer experience: Use written and verbal communication to simplify and provide complex information in a way that supports positive customer outcome in the relevant format
- Working with customers/customer insights: Proactively gather customer feedback, through a variety of methods. Critically analyse, and evaluate the meaning, implication and facts and act upon it
- Working with customers/customer insights: Analyse your customer types, to identify or anticipate their potential needs and expectations when providing your service
- Customer Service performance: Maintain a positive relationship even when you are unable to deliver the customer’s expected outcome
- Customer Service performance: When managing referrals or escalations take into account historical interactions and challenges to determine next steps
- Service Improvement: Analyse the end to end service experience, seeking input from others where required, supporting development of solutions
- Service Improvement: Make recommendations based on your findings to enable improvement
- Service Improvement: Make recommendations and implement where possible, changes in line with new and relevant legislation, regulations and industry best practice
Training schedule
- You will achieve the Level 3 Customer Service Specialist Apprenticeship Standard
- There are workshops you will need to attend via Teams
- You will have a mentor for one to one teaching and learning
- To include off the job training
- In-house training will be given to support specifics of the role
Requirements
Essential qualifications
GCSE in:
- English (grade 4/C)
- Maths (grade 4/C)
Share if you have other relevant qualifications and industry experience. The apprenticeship can be adjusted to reflect what you already know.
Skills
- Communication skills
- IT skills
- Attention to detail
- Organisation skills
- Customer care skills
- Problem solving skills
- Administrative skills
- Analytical skills
- Logical
- Team working
- Initiative
About this employer
Established in 1955, BM Group is one of the largest steel stockholders and processors in the UK, with nearly 500 employees across our divisions – BM Steel, BM Architectural, SPS, IMS, and AFG. As part of Marubeni-Itochu Steel Inc., we operate nationwide, offering a dynamic and fast-paced working environment where no two days are the same. Whether you're based at one of our busy depots, service centres or head office, you’ll be part of a company that values innovation and continuous improvement. At BM Group, our people are our greatest strength. We’re proud to foster a culture built on our core values of Innovation, Inspiration, Collaboration, Integrity, and Excellence. We invest in our teams and provide opportunities for growth, development, and progression. If you're looking to join a business where your contribution matters and you're encouraged to make an impact, we’d love to hear from you.
Company benefits
Benefits: 23 days holiday, plus bank holidays. Life assurance. Taste Card. Annual health screenings. Free eye tests. Development opportunities. Access to mental health first aiders. Pension scheme. Extra holiday for long service. Birthday day off.
After this apprenticeship
- There will be ongoing opportunities for career progression and development for the right candidate upon completion of the apprenticeship
Ask a question
The contact for this apprenticeship is:
THELIGHTBULB LTD
Andrea Gregory
andrea.gregory@getsetuk.co.uk
07764969337
The reference code for this apprenticeship is VAC1000334993.
Apply now
Closes on Monday 15 September 2025
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