The challenge of ambition

I sometimes wish I could have settled to a nine to five job, doing something simple, predictable and safe. But for the past 27 years now I have chosen self-employment. Those years have never been simple, never been predictable and rarely felt safe. At times it's been exhilarating, at others terrifying and yet I have consistently made a good living, even funding two children through private education. 

One constant through all those years has been my ambition. Not you understand an urge to have exotic holidays or flash cars, but an unyielding determination to make a difference. One benefit of Mensa membership is the ability to see opportunity where others see threat. It also makes me prone to overthinking and various scenarios play out in my head as I reflect on projects I become involved with. 

Of course I'm not alone in having both ability and ambition. Many like me struggled to fit into the education system, failing to collect the qualifications too often considered a prerequisite to employment. And so after an unhappy decade not fitting in a corporate environment, I went it alone.

Today, more perhaps than ever before, the world needs people who see the world differently. More of the same just doesn't work, if indeed it ever did. But bright kids who fail to tick the right boxes, just because they are different, continue to become increasingly frustrated in the jobs they can get, rather than the careers that they need. 

It is hugely satisfying to see some of these young people flourish as Swarm apprentices, helping enlightened employers take advantage of previously unseen opportunity. There's no doubt that these youngsters can challenge convention; but the Swarm programme encourages them to do this is positive, constructive ways. 

There is great turbulence and change in the way apprenticeships are funded these days, but behind the smoke and mirrors of Government policy hides your opportunity. Swarm has always been a company ahead of its time. The Swarm approach of encouraging empowerment, autonomy and accountability fit well with the hoops we as a training provider have to jump. 

Today, more than ever before, businesses, charities and social enterprises need people with ambition and an ability to see beyond the obvious. Today more than ever before, Swarm apprentices can be the catalysts for the change every organisation needs to see.