“Apprenticeships are right at the heart of the kind of economy we want to build.”
David Cameron
As employees, apprentices earn a wage and work alongside experienced staff to gain job-specific skills. Off the job, usually on a day-release basis, apprentices receive training to work towards nationally recognised qualifications. Anyone living in England, over 16 years-old and not in full-time education can become an apprentice today.
Apprenticeships are no longer considered a poor persons degree, in fact they never were. It was just people had that misconception because; they didn’t have to pay to do an apprenticeship whereas with a university degree they did, but in essence with an apprenticeship you earn and learn. What could possibly be better than that?
Another conclusion people jump to when they hear the word apprenticeship is that it’s just for people who want to learn a trade for example plumbing, gas or brick laying. In fact they are wrong again; apprenticeships cover all sectors of the job market.
Below are three apprenticeship vacancies I found within a couple of minutes, check out the variety!
(Wage isn’t too bad either, is it?)
- Apprenticeship in Air Conditioning Engineering
Weekly Wage: £ 214.32
Apprenticeship Framework: Refrigeration and Air Conditioning
- Advertising Sales Executives
Weekly Wage: £ 200.00
Apprenticeship Framework: Sales and Telesales
- Junior Designer Assistant
Weekly Wage: £ 200.00
Apprenticeship Framework: Creative and Digital Media
I started an apprenticeship six months after I left secondary school; I was a corporate services apprentice for a West Midlands based housing association. This role was extremely varied I was experiencing many departments such as Health and Safety, IT, Finance and HR. Experiencing various departments really helped me to gain a better understanding of how the business worked which helped me to prosper as I knew what organisational goal I was working towards. From my personal experience with an apprenticeship I would definitely recommend it to everyone because, you gain a huge amount of knowledge and experience plus you get paid for it.
Many organisations now look for experience over further education especially in some sectors; therefore an apprenticeship is the best way to gain that experience.
To finish with I would highly recommend that you take a look at the Vocational Rich List below; this is the rich list for people who have built their fortunes following an apprenticeship. You may be surprised to see who you find in there. It could be you in the near future!
http://www.cityandguilds.com/68377.html
A long apprenticeship is the most logical way to success. The only alternative is overnight stardom, but I can’t give you a formula for that. “Chet Atkins”