This year’s National Apprenticeship Week is running from 8th to 14th February 2021. The theme for the 14th annual event is ‘Build the Future’, aiming to encourage everyone to consider how apprenticeships help individuals to build the skills and knowledge required for a rewarding career. This week long celebration of apprenticeships, taking place across England, helps to showcase the impact apprenticeships can have communities, local businesses and regional economies and how they all benefit from the impact of apprenticeships.
To celebrate this annual initiative and to highlight the positive impact that our apprentices have within Brothers of Charity Services, we have spoken to a number of our current apprentices about the tasks that they carry out on a daily basis as well as what they enjoy most about their apprenticeship. We’ve had a fantastic response from our hardworking apprentices and proud to share the blow case studies.
Jordan says ‘I chose an apprenticeship because as I wanted a more hands on approach to my education and the apprenticeship offered better opportunities for this than a traditional route. It also allowed me to further develop my passion for horticulture in a learning environment. I found the recruitment process really easy and straight forward to follow. I received lots of guidance throughout the process from application to acceptance. I am a Grounds Maintenance Operative, which means I am responsible for all aspects of grounds and garden maintenance. My favourite part of the job is the ability to take part in transforming people’s gardens into their dream garden.
I have learnt so much here and the management have been so supportive that I would like to continue my career within the organisation. Therefor I would definitely recommend an apprenticeship with CaritaSE to my family and friends. The best advice I would give to anyone looking at their next step it follow your passion. If you find an apprenticeship doing what you love then you will enjoy every moment you spend learning.’
Latasha says ‘I chose to an apprenticeship so I could learn in a working environment and get paid to do so. This gives me the opportunity to learn from highly skilled employees and develop my skills from a well-established company. I found the recruitment process very informative and easy to understand. All paperwork was explained in detail and help was available throughout the whole process if required. With my role being Administration Apprentice, this entails providing administrative support such as scanning, typing, printing, filing and much more to all departments within the company.
I would like this apprenticeship to allow me to gain the skills and qualifications to work for the company upon my completion and hopefully lead me to be able to attain further higher level qualifications. I would definitely recommend an apprenticeship to anyone looking to gain skills and a qualification within a working environment. When choosing an apprenticeship, I would advise people to make sure they enrol in something that interests them and they believe they would enjoy completing.’
Jessica says ‘I chose an apprenticeship because I was moving into a new career path, I felt this would be the best way to gain the skills and knowledge in both a work and educational environment. I would be given the support I would need as someone who is new to the job role. My recruitment process was an interview over zoom and then an offer the following day. During the ongoing process I also had telephone conversation with my eventual manager and the head of Learning and Development who is responsible for apprenticeships to discuss my options and what would be the best qualification to complete for me. The process was informal and the teams that I spoke to were extremely helpful and made me feel like I was part of the team already.
My job role was originally within the Learning and Development department, I was then invited to join the HR team where I am now being trained in various HR tasks and will be involved in future HR projects such as management development. After completing my apprenticeship I hope to become a permanent member of staff within The Brothers of Charity Services. I then hope to progress to a management role and be more involved in projects relating to employment wellbeing and HR development.
I would definitely recommend an apprenticeship as it gives you a chance to learn the knowledge needed for a particular vocation whilst giving you opportunities to put what you have learnt into practice in a work setting. I would advise them to ask lots of questions about how they will be supported and what the end goal for the apprenticeship would be. I would also advise them to look into the organization itself so that they can be sure that it is the place they would like to remain once they has completed their apprenticeship.’
Carmen says ‘Having no previous experience in this role I found an apprenticeship is a great opportunity to develop the necessary skills to help me within my role in a structured way. The recruitment process was very straight forward. Application was easy to understand, I felt very comfortable in my interview and the induction was helpful for clearing up any queries or questions I had.
I am currently a HR Administration Apprentice where I provide support in many different processes such as new staff inductions, creating files and reports, processing resignations and providing employee references. I hope after this apprenticeship I gain full employment within the company. Alternatively, the apprenticeship could give me the experience, skills and qualifications to work in HR further afield. When recommending an apprenticeship to others, my advice would be to choose something that you will enjoy and something you would like to build a career in.’