Customer Service Practitioner (Standard Level 2)

The role of a customer service practitioner is to deliver high quality products and services to the customers of their organisation. Your main responsibility will be to provide a high quality service to customers which will be delivered from the workplace, digitally, or through going out into the customer’s own locality. These may be one-off or routine contacts and include dealing with orders, payments, offering advice, guidance and support, meet-and-greet, sales, fixing problems, after care, service recovery or gaining insight through measuring customer satisfaction. You may be the first point of contact and work in any sector or organisation type.

Applicants aged 16–18 who have not achieved GCSE Maths and English at grade 4 (C) or above must work towards and attempt Functional Skills Level 2 in both subjects as part of their apprenticeship programme.

For applicants aged 19 and over, this requirement is optional and can be removed if both the apprentice and employer agree, with the decision formally documented at enrolment.

• Hands-on Training & College Learning: Apprentices work in customer-facing roles within an on-site business setting while attending college on day per week. They gain experience handling enquiries, resolving issues, and delivering service across phone, email, and face-to-face interactions; supported by structured learning in service principles.

• Wide-Ranging Curriculum: The course covers communication skills, customer service regulations, conflict resolution, and using digital systems. Apprentices also learn how to build rapport, manage expectations, and contribute to customer satisfaction and loyalty.

• Specialist Pathways: Learners may focus on retail, hospitality, finance, or public services depending on their employer and their own area of interest. Some specialise in complaint handling, CRM systems, or service improvement, with optional training in sector-specific tools and standards.

• Career-Ready Qualification: Upon completion (typically 12-14 months), apprentices earn a Level 2 qualification and are ready for roles such as customer service assistant, contact centre agent, or receptionist, with progression into supervisory roles or Level 3 apprenticeships.

For a comprehensive understanding of this programme and what it entails, please click here.

As an Apprenticeship standard, you will be assessed against your knowledge, skills and behaviours.

Knowledge includes – knowing your customer, understanding the organisation, meeting regulations and legislation, systems and resources, your role and responsibilities, customer experience, product and service knowledge

Skills include – interpersonal skills, communication, influencing skills, personal organisation, dealing with customer conflict and challenge

Behaviours include – developing self, being open to feedback, team working, and equality – treating all customers as individuals, presentation (dress code), professional language and the ‘right first time’ rule

Delivered entirely in the workplace, you will be visited regularly by your assessor for the duration of your apprenticeship, assessed against your knowledge and skills in readiness for an independent End Point Assessment.

Typically this takes 12-14 months to complete, depending on your previous knowledge and experience.

To be an apprentice, you will need an employer who can offer you a specific role relevant to this apprenticeship and release you for your training. Once you have an employer in place, you can apply online. If after reading this fact sheet, you are still undecided about the course most suitable for you, please drop into one of our advice events, ring the Apprenticeship Team on 01743 653444 or email apprenticeships@shrewsbury.ac.uk