My apprenticeship found me, and it's still shaping my career. #NAW2024.

National Apprenticeship Week 2024 has, as it usually does, prompted arguments and musings from sector commentators, both within the FE and HE space, on the benefits of apprenticeships, the challenges in delivering them for providers, their growth in popularity in recent years, and what the future could and should hold for apprenticeship provision. Rather than give my two pennies’ worth as to why we need to simplify the regulation of apprenticeships (and degree apprenticeships for that matter), I thought I’d share my own apprenticeship story, and the power that the alternative pathway had on my career. Funnily enough, I never sought out an apprenticeship for myself. In fact, it was rather more like an apprenticeship had sought me out. ?

17-year-old me had grown tired of lessons in the classroom, but I had begrudgingly stayed on at my secondary school as a sixth form pupil. Although, I quickly felt that I had entered a continuation of that very same secondary education, with not much motivation to continue. I knew in my heart that I was not as focused on my A-levels as I should be, and that were I to stay on that path, I’d not achieve much. Why was this? For whatever reason, I felt a sense of entitlement, and that I had figuratively ‘graduated’ from classroom-style teaching. I had also grown bored of homework, despised coursework and exams, and had seen a few of my classmates begin to earn money with part-time, or even full-time jobs.?

So, to my parents’ bemusement,?I took the decision to drop out of sixth form just a month following my starting there. I didn’t have a plan – but rather a singular goal – to begin earning money and seek the more immediate satisfaction of a pay check that comes with full-time employment. Back then, the minimum wage of ￡6.05 an hour was way more money than I’d ever been accustomed to, so the arguments of higher earnings following A-level and University study didn’t really bother me. ?

I could have, and probably should have, instead waited for the January intake of an FE college to see if that better suited me rather than sixth form. I had a bubbling passion for music technology and production, and so an FE college that would allow me to develop my interest with said passion through a more vocational qualification, with a timetable that allowed for a part-time job, would have been perfect. Sadly, I felt it wouldn’t deliver the instant gratification my teenage mind needed to keep me motivated. So rather than risk falling into the trap of committing to a course I might not feel urged to give my all to, I kept to my decision to find work.?

My mind was made up. I was going to find a decently paying job and get on the employment ladder. Leading to where? I did not know or care. Unfortunately for me, the year was 2011, and so the economy, and therefore jobs market, was still dealing with the aftershock of the 2008 financial crash. Even the most junior of full-time roles were out of my reach as a school-leaver. I signed up to countless job alerts sites, uploaded my CV onto as many careers platforms as you could imagine, and submitted too many applications to remember. My routine became one of applying for jobs, eating, sleeping and repeating. I did this for 3 months. ?

Out of the blue, I was contacted by an organisation. I’m not entirely sure that the means through which they found me would be GDPR compliant nowadays. Still, what I cared most about was the fact they were promising to help me find a job. There was?just one catch, however. Or so I thought at the time. It would be as an apprentice. Earning roughly ￡3 an hour as was the apprenticeship wage and minimum wage for under 18s back then. At first, I turned my nose up at the thought of working for less than the national minimum wage for adults. I’m not sure why I had built up such an ego as I'd not added a shed of value to the economy in all my life at this point. Yet here I was turning down a fair opportunity to change that. After another month or so of rejected applications, feedback from employers saying I had no chance at a permanent role and feeling that just to get a look in you needed to be 30+ years old with three master’s degrees, I took the plunge with the apprenticeship provider. ?

They were calling me regularly to check-in to see whether I changed my mind, and so when they next did, I was sure to tell them I was ready to become an apprentice. Redwood Skills was their name (they have since merged with Dynamic Training UK Ltd.) and they were based in Embankment, which seemed to be a lightyear away for an east London resident like me. Nevertheless, I got on the tube at Stratford to get myself to what I hoped would be my way into the world of work. I arrived and was met by careers advisors who were giving mock interviews in an almost conveyor-belt-like fashion. Seeing one young unemployed person after another, firing quick questions at them to assess their suitability for their many employer partners, I guess.?

I went through Redwood Skills’ registration processes, answered a series of questions about my interests and strengths with likely terrible answers, and left to get?on the tube back home. Within a week, they had phoned me up with two trial day opportunities. This would give?the employers a taste of my work and attitude before they decided to hire me or not. The first was a telephone sales representative role based in central London, and the second was a student support administrator?role at a private HE provider. I failed hard at the first opportunity. This wasn’t entirely surprising as I’d hardly ever spoken to anyone on the phone as a teenager. Even with my own friends I was rather shy on phone calls. For the second opportunity, however, I warmed much more to the people. I liked the tasks I was given and felt more confident. That private HE provider was EThames Graduate School. At the time, I did not even know such a thing existed.?

After the trial day, and an interview with their Registrar and HR manager in which I gave a cringeworthy example of buying a toy for my younger brother with my pocket money as an example for inspiring/ motivating others, I was hired! I then quickly found that HE was where I fit in. My first tasks were to hand out the last of the Post-study Work Visa letters; it was early 2012, and so Theresa May had set her sights on reducing international student numbers. I was then passed around to different departments such as the library, sitting with admissions staff, preparing paperwork for a QAA review, and getting to know the overall operation of the place. From there, I went onto be the course administrator for EThames’ Pearson Edexcel provision. Being a smaller private provider, my work covered all aspects of the student journey. I loved supporting students from enrolment through to them?progressing from their HND programmes onto our Top-Up undergraduate degrees. Alongside this, I attended a half day class every Tuesday for the second 3 months my apprenticeship. After a year, I had impressed my employers, and compiled all of my apprenticeship evidence. As a result, I scored the permanent role and achieved my NVQ Level 2 in Business Administration. ?

I reminded myself I had not sought out an apprenticeship. Yet, there I was, having completed one, and albeit a little later than I had planned, I was employed in a permanent role, within a sector I had begun to find my feet in. As an apprentice I had the privilege of being shown most parts of an organisation, was able to ask as many questions as I liked, and worked my way into my colleagues hearts and minds as the?team member who was open to help with any and everything you’d throw at them. This was a far cry from the teenager who had been, to be honest, work shy, and a just a little bit lazy. This was the kickstart to my career in HE. A year later I decided it was time to move on. I loved EThames and its wonderful people, but I knew I needed to experience something bigger to further my HE career. I therefore began my search for roles in universities.?

I secured a permanent Partnerships Officer role at the University Greenwich within their Business School at the age of 19 without A-levels or a bachelor’s degree. The inquisitive nature and work ethic I built during my apprenticeship drove me to find every opportunity to excel at Greenwich, with the aim of building a good network along the way. I think Greenwich admired this because they offered to pay for me to complete a 6-year-long bachelor’s degree with them on a part-time basis alongside my job. This was rather daunting as it locked me into a single employer for 6 years. However, Greenwich was full of supportive people. In addition, while I gained my ‘soft’ skills as an apprentice, I had felt that sometimes I couldn’t quite understand what my more senior colleagues were talking about – I concluded this was because of my lack of a degree. So, I agreed. Although there was a problem. As explained earlier, I had no A-levels, and only a Level 2 qualification. Instead, I applied to be a part-time student based on my work experience. Usually, this approach was reserved for 25+ year olds, but I guess they were willing to make an exception. I?could not be more grateful for the fact that they did.?

Fast-forward 9 years on to 2023, and I had been promoted to Head of Business Operations in the Business School, had completed that very bachelor’s degree, completed?an Executive MBA, also with Greenwich, and was at the beginning of my DBA in Higher Education Management at the University of Bath. Yet again I’d decided I needed to move onto pastures new, but reflected on the fact that the early skills I picked up in my apprenticeship such as; my blending of work experience alongside an academic underpinning; my curiosity for a sector and its inner workings; and most importantly a taste for the gratification that greater responsibility brings; carried me through my time at Greenwich to great effect.?

Now, as I sit writing this reflection as Vice Principal of a private HE provider, Vice-Chair of the Board of an FE college, and a candidate on a doctoral programme at the 5th best university out of 130 in the UK, I find it funny that my decision to get away from education because ‘it wasn’t for me’, has landed me in positions as engrossed within education as one can be. This is all thanks to the apprenticeship which found me.?

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