Apprentice Ambassador stories

Hello my name is Alicia and I'm a digital marketing apprentice at amazing apprenticeships. So as I just mentioned I'm a digital marketing apprentice I'm doing the level three digital marketing apprenticeship and I'm coming towards the end of my apprenticeship now. I just finished EPA and I'm waiting for my results and I will soon be digital insights coordinator.

Some of my responsibilities include creating reports. So I create various reports on our websites and social media just to keep track of our campaigns. I do a lot of content creation so I just create various content reels you know carousels for Instagram enquiries any questions that people may have about apprenticeships or amazing apprenticeships I usually answer those via email. Website, so I do update and maintain the website so if any text needs updating or any resources need uploading I will update those. Campaign planning so I do plan a lot of campaigns with the team it's really important as a digital marketer to get involved with that and research so in order to stay up to date with trends the digital marketing world is always changing so research is a large part of my job as well.

So during my apprenticeship one of my units was the principles of coding and this was just learning how the internet works, how computers work, and you know how they connect to each other, the principles of marketing so this is just like the marketing mix, customer life cycle and the product life cycle and things like that. Web analytics so I had to do the Google analytics advanced course and Google analytics beginners course and then I also chose web analytics for my project work and then I also chose email marketing for my project work as well.

The recruitment process so my process was a little bit different. I started off on the Kickstart scheme and this was a government scheme for young people and this just gave young people the opportunity to participate in some part-time work to gain some experience. So before my Kickstart scheme I had to have two interviews. So the first interview was just really getting to know you, just to see like what kind of person you were and then they gave us a task and that task was to basically create a web page and just add some copy in as well. It was just a really nice creative task and then I got called for the second interview and I was successful.

So after my Kickstart scheme I felt really prepared to go on to full-time work to go on to an apprenticeship and I was offered the digital marketing apprenticeship. I was interviewed and I came out successful as well.

Why I think apprenticeships are great so I think apprenticeships are great for many reasons but the main reasons for me would be great experience. You get a lot of experience obviously you know an apprenticeship is just hands-on work it's it's great for your experience great for your CV you'll learn so much you'll have so much to put in your CV by the end of it as well.

Growth so I really do feel like my apprenticeship has allowed me to grow as a person I definitely feel more mature now as well after starting my apprenticeship and it gives learners other opportunities you know if you're not too keen on going to uni or going to college an apprenticeship is really really great option that I would really really recommend.

I've had many opportunities during my apprenticeship. One of these opportunities being the multicultural apprenticeship awards so I attended this it was really really fun event really really well organised, really entertaining. Building my network so during my apprenticeship I've attended so many events and I've been able to build my network you know both in person and on LinkedIn and I just feel like that's been really beneficial. And the Biz4Biz Awards which I went to recently I just thought was really really nice awards to go to it was really great to see so many amazing organizations.

And creativity. I feel like my job role especially has given me a lot of creative freedom it's given me the opportunity um to express my creativity. So my greatest achievements have been meeting the skills minister the previous skills minister Alex Berghart. I got to have a conversation with him about apprenticeships and about the Kickstart scheme and I just thought that was a really good achievement in my apprenticeship. And producing an article for the Festival of apprenticeships um I thought that was a really great moment I just got to talk about my experience as an apprentice.

What I'm really proud of. So I'm really proud of the quality of work that I've produced um creating a portfolio has been you know it's been amazing just to see all my work in one place and just how far I come and acing my exams so I did pass my principles of coding principles of marketing and the Google analytics exams and yeah I'm just really proud of that.

My advice to others. So be ready to work hard you know an apprenticeship is hard work but it's definitely worth it. Get some experience I would recommend doing at part-time work or some work experience beforehand see if you like the job role and then maybe ask if you can do an apprenticeship. And then I would definitely say do some research as well you know there's so many apprenticeship options out there, there's apprenticeships in every sector and I definitely think it's worth doing some research.

Thank you for listening to my story and my experience as a digital marketing apprentice.

Hi my name is Jess Cullen and I'm a quality assurance officer previously a level three business administration apprentice at Somerset County Council. So I started at the council by enrolling on a level three business administration apprenticeship and I think the best way to describe the apprenticeship is that you get to learn a little about a lot so I learned about various different business fundamentals which I can take with me to pretty much any job or organiasation which I think will be really helpful.

While doing that apprenticeship I was working within the marketing team so I got to learn about different digital marketing and communications and had the chance to create different flyers, social media posts and also attend different conferences and events one of which I got to project manage our exhibition stand as part of my apprenticeship which I think was a really good experience.

I think completing the apprenticeship definitely helped me in securing my current permanent position as a quality insurance officer particularly because I already had a little bit of an understanding around the types of things that I now do on my daily role which mainly involves contract management and managing customer accounts and those sorts of things.

The recruitment process my apprenticeship was fairly simple although I was a little bit bit worried about my lack of experience.

I completed a college course in animal management and my background was in vet nursing so I decided I want to go for something completely different as that wasn't quite the right route for me at that moment in time. So I kept on looking at the government website find apprenticeship.com pretty much every single day until I eventually found the business admin one which I was really interested in. So I sent off my CV and cover letter I think I answered a few simple questions such as why do you want this job and I was then offered an interview by Microsoft Teams and had a call back to say they would like to offer me the job.

I think apprenticeships are great for so many different reasons but the first being that they boost confidence particularly because there is such a great support network around you. So for example I have my line manager, I have my tutor, colleagues, apprentices, and the Ambassador Network itself and I think regular contact with those people who are encouraging you and supporting you really helps to boost confidence not just within your work but also personally as well. There's also various opportunities to learn about what sorts of things you do enjoy what you don't enjoy and experiences not just within your job role but outside of that as well. So for example that picture was taken when I went up to London to be interviewed as part of the top 100 apprentice employers broadcast which was a great experience but something that a few years ago I would have never had the confidence to do. I was very shy didn't have much confidence but throughout my apprenticeship by being encouraged to take smaller steps it eventually led to being able to take bigger steps such as that one.

There's also apprenticeship awards which are ran every year.I was very grateful to be awarded the Southwest highly commended apprentice ambassador of the year in 2022. As a result of everything I've learned within my apprenticeship particularly being supported with public speaking and again confidence I also helped set up and I'm now the co-chair of the young employees network within Somerset County Council.

My advice to others be, to have an open mind and just take every single opportunity that you possibly can throughout the apprenticeship. There's so many different apprenticeships out there so just choose the one that really resonates with you and you think you would enjoy the most and even if you don't enjoy it you can learn so much from it, so many transferable skills and have so many experiences to network with so many great people. I think that opens so many different doors, whether that be a new job, other qualifications or or even just apprenticeships. So have an open mind and just apply for the apprenticeship that you think you would most enjoy.

Hi my name is Georgia Beaumont and I work for Parker Meggitt. I'm currently doing a chartered management degree apprenticeship with them. It lasts four years and I started in September 2022. So looking at my current roles and responsibilities, my apprenticeship is more business generic so we're looking at different aspects of the business which at university my modules are so looking marketing operations and finance, which when I'm doing a placement in marketing I'm also doing placement in marketing at work so they do match up which makes going to uni and understanding the modules a lot easier.

I also do a lot of presenting to colleagues so learning PowerPoint skills, how to build good slides, making bids to customers, anything like that you know improving those basic skills which hopefully can be used in the future.

Gaining a greater product knowledge so as my companies in the Aerospace industry I didn't have no knowledge prior to joining what projects they do, what even is the Aerospace industry? So going out on shop floor speaking to engineers understanding the products more which for my later roles obviously it's important that you do understand what you're trying to sell.

Being a child of the young professionals employee resource group something that I've joined recently and I'm a chair on the UK site, we organize events that employees in the group go to, get employees a bigger voice in the company you know, really make a community that employees feel proud to be a part of.

And then lastly attending Aston University. So this makes up the degree part of my apprenticeship so once a week I'll have a lecture on the evening, depending on what module it is, depends what we learn and then I'll have a day a week to do my uni work so at the moment it's on Fridays as well as twice a time I go in for 2 days and we do 4 days of lectures.

Moving on to the recruitment process which is important to understand that it's different for everybody, my experience is going to be different to somebody that applies for a different company because companies will recruit people in different ways but this is my personal experience.

So initially I'd had never heard about degree apprenticeships didn't know what they were and it was actually a careers advisor from college that had said about them so they put a session on and joined the session and thought oh looks like really interesting so I'm going to do some research into it research you know what a degree apprenticeship is the opportunities that it might give me and other people's experiences.

Once I'd done that I thought again you know really like the idea so I'll go have a look looked on the government website and found apprenticeships and companies that I thought might look really interesting to work for, so sort of save them and if I really wanted to apply for them I'd make sure that they were the right company by doing research into that specific company just to make sure that their values sort of aligned mine and it would be somewhere where I could grow and had potential to do well in.

So done that, found the company that I wanted to apply for, filled out the application forms you know including my CV, my personal statement, also answering a few questions you know that the company have come up with. Once that had been sent off if I was successful I got invited to complete online assessments. These were actually done through Get My First Job who was the recruitment partner that my company chose to to for people to apply for.

So I did the online assessments just tested you know general English, math skills, problem solving then I passed that luckily and went into this online interview. I got through it people asked you questions you have to record yourself filming 3 chances is all you got, sent off was very nervously waiting for a response and was successful and got invited to the assessment centre.

So the assessment centre um you know did a group activity had a presentation which Get My First Job really good and sent out loads of resources of how to make the presentation, how to prepare for your interview, and it was something that I really prepared for because I really wanted to do well. So I definitely feel bad for my dad a lot of practice with him on the phone every night, "Dad help me, please interview me, practice" whatever so I did whatever it took to go there well prepared did the assessment centre and obviously was really lucky that I got hired.

However it's really important that everybody understands that you don't always get the first one you apply for. So I think I applied for a couple and got to various stages in them however you're not going to get every single one that you apply for, it's really competitive hundreds of people apply, don't be disheartened by that if you get the call and you're not successful apply for another there's always going to be something out there for you. But learn from it at the end of the day you can learn from your past interview what went well, what didn't be better prepared for the next one.

For me personally I think it's one of the best decisions that I could have made coming out of college. It was very between do I go to Just uni fulltime or just a friendship but I got the best of both worlds by doing both and really grateful for that.

So I get to attend a lot of events um I've been to events through work so this is MRO Europe big event you know gets to meet lots of customers and really understand the Aerospace industry a lot more but outside of that you know looking more of development and the apprenticeship side of it. I've got to visit schools and hopefully you know inspire others to take the same route as me as it's given me lot of rewards and opportunities like the opportunity to travel which even after 6 months of being there I was lucky enough to go to France and visit some customers which I would have never got if I just went to uni.

You get to meet and network with people that you wouldn't expect so I get to speak to loads of different people from different companies but also internally to the business you know through doing the apprenticeship I've met the CEO of the company, which has been really exciting because I know a lot my colleagues who haven't ever got to meet her and they've been working there for 20, 30, 40 years so the apprenticeship sort of has given you that pass to go visit these high important people.

My professional development obviously if I just went to uni full time I wouldn't be working I wouldn't be getting to learn those professional skills you know how to write emails correctly you know that formal language. And the training such as the Excel training days that I've done you know PowerPoint skills things like that I would never have got if I'd just gone to uni and start in the classroom and learning skills. So I'm really grateful that my apprenticeship you know gives me that.

And obviously something which most people would say or try to say that it's not that important to them but I think to everyone it's important in some aspects you know I'm paid to get a degree at the end of the day. I'm coming out of my apprenticeship with no student loans that I have to pay back in over my lifetime you know I'm debt free but I probably also got a lot more saved up because I'm earning so I think that's a really good thing.

And obviously there's some pictures so holding the apprenticeship open day you know team building events with all the apprenticeships that we've done and then travelling.

Finally my advice to others. Firstly take as many opportunities as you can. You don't know where one tiny little project that you might be working on can need you to whether it be the project that just keeps getting bigger and bigger or the people that you work with see something in you so they want to keep working with you and give you more responsibility more tasks to work on.

Secondly be authentic. The end of the day you can lie itself through an interview you can make out to be this different person but is that really who you are. One employees rather going to see straight through through you or two if you did get the job you know when you go to there and they realise that you're not the person who you're saying you are you're not going to have that trust from your peers which will make making those working relationships really hard.

And lastly have fun. And a lot of having fun is embracing all these opportunities being authentic and just being yourself. However a lot of that will also come through making sure that you choose a company that will allow you to so doing that research initially to make sure that the employers values, goals, are similar to yours, the company will allow for that growth so that you can have that fun and give you those fun opportunities which you want to do.

Really important one because you don't want to be spending 3, 4 years in an apprenticeship that you're not enjoying otherwise you're not going to get the best out of yourself.

Hi my name is Ben Eve I work for Somerset County Council in the economy and planning team as a project officer and I am a southwest young apprenticeship ambassador as well as the vice chair for Somerset. I've been working at Somerset county council for three years now, since January 2018 when I started there on my project management apprenticeship.

So currently at council I'm a project officer as I mentioned earlier this is for the Somerset skills for growth project which is a county-wide programme of employment and skills initiatives focusing on improving the apprenticeship provision at county council, apprenticeship provision across the county, and offering loads of upskilling opportunities and and training opportunities to residents of Somerset.

As well as this I still work on the Somerset enterprise centre network which is a network of rurally based workspace centres comprising of office space and light industrial space to try and increase economic growth across the county.

As well as this I have a role in the team as a technology champion and this is to primarily focus on the rollouts of Windows 10 technology and the adoption of Sharepoint as our document management system. This role really is about just highlighting the new technology to the team ensuring they understand it, how to use it, and finding focus areas that aren't as common and highlighting those as well.

Finally I'm the vice chair for Somerset in the southwest region and this is for the young apprenticeship ambassador network and this is about promoting apprenticeships as as a really successful route for learning, and also trying to encourage current apprentices to join the network.

So why do I think apprenticeships are great. I was originally looking at going to university and to study music and the two didn't line up. An academic traditional group with a very creative subject I just thought wouldn't align so in the end I decided not to go. I took about six months out after my A levels just working at supermarket and following that I found the opportunity at Somerset county council.

The apprenticeship itself was fantastic. I was not a child in the organisation I was treated as an adult, I had work to do, I had projects to deliver and if I didn't do the work that nobody else would. As well as that it provided me with the opportunity to earn a living of which I moved from south Somerset in a very rural location to Bristol where I am now.

The lockdown came so I haven't been able to experience Bristol as much as I have or would have liked to this year but in the previous years I definitely have. As well as that you still get your student discount as with everyone else but you're still earning a wage so there's the bonus there and that's with unidays, national union of students and student beans.

I finished my apprenticeship last May 2020 and since I have been able to get another promotion essentially due to the experience that I gained while doing my apprenticeship. So if I didn't have that I very likely not be at the council and definitely wouldn't be where I am in my career currently.

So the recruitment process. This was very much like any other job. I actually found the apprenticeship role on Indeed and I put in an application as you do with your CV and your covering letter and take care on those, it's the first impression that any employer will ever get of you and you really need to get your points across quickly and clearly.

Saying that, just because I found it on Indeed that's not the the only place you can find apprenticeships. You have the national Find an apprenticeship website the gov website and as well as that you have some localised Somerset resources for you as well such as Study up Somerset, Skill Up Somerset and also any of the training providers that you're aware of whether it be colleges or university centres of these colleges. They will have websites and their opportunities are on there as well.

So I submitted my full application. I think it was probably a week or two weeks up until the deadline and then I heard back from an officer at the county council who and I don't know very well and they invited me to an interview.

This was a physical interview at the time but I've recently had ones on virtual and to be honest I think the virtual interviews are more friendly. The physical interview at the time I went into County Hall the base for county council and I was asked a series of questions interview questions. These were a mixture of-well there were mainly competency based questions so these are questions on how you deal with scenarios.

I had to do a little bit of research before on I believe it was how I could improve skills employment levels in Somerset or the barriers to skills and skills employment and skills in sunset.

Following the interview I think I was contacted the same day by by phone and I was offered the apprenticeship opportunity.

What I would say is make sure you do your research. It was clear from the phone call and the manager who was interviewing me at the time made it very clear that I was the one who they could tell I did the most research into the subject. So do not for one minute think that you don't need to do it. It's very important that you you study for your interview and make sure you're already prepared.

So finally my advice for others. If you're thinking about doing an apprenticeship do it. Research it. Research what you want to do. Apprenticeships are now more common and flexible um than they ever have been. They're in all sorts of-you can take all sorts of different apprenticeships, marketing, project management, your traditional apprenticeships if that still really wants to take a variety of levels from level 2 which is your GCSE, level 3 is A levels, level 4 and 5, foundation degree level, level 6 your full degree level and even level 7 a master's degree.

So it's the best time ever to get involved with apprenticeships. You will find what you would like to find through an apprenticeship.

And then finally I'd say apart from preparing for the interview and do what's best for you. If you don't want to go to university there's I'm aware teachers say and I remember my teacher saying: "don't follow your friends don't just do what your friends are doing".

You will make new friends. I've made many many friends and increased my social groups through fold just in the two years before covered in Bristol and the only reason i was able to move to Bristol is because I was able to to have the independent living and the salary to enable me to do so.

So those those are my final points and thank you very much for listening. I hope to see you on an apprenticeship or in the ambassador network soon. Thank you.

Hello, my name is Bradley Longford. I'm an Apprentice Business and Marketing Assistant for Henry Boot Construction, and today I'll be talking to you about my apprenticeship story.

Let's begin. Currently in my role at Henry Boot, I'm responsible for creating news articles for our website, also managing the social media channels, our LinkedIn and Twitter creating content and sharing content. I also assist the Marketing Assistant in creating any brochures, case studies, newsletters for our clients to showcase our work. Finally, I get out to a lot of local careers events, promoting construction and apprenticeships and guiding young people in their careers.

I've had a vast range of experiences in the recruitment process. I've had interviews at Microsoft, Boots, Pearson, and Henry Boot. I'd say out of the four, the Microsoft interview was the most complex in the sense that it involved a lot of stages. So, for example, in order to get an interview at their head office in Reading, I had to go through a psychometric test, a video, pre-recorded questionnaire so I had to record myself answering questions, and also I had to have a telephone interview as well.

In comparison, Henry Boot had a more traditional approach. In the sense that was a application form, then they rang me up and asked me to come in for an interview. After a week or so, they then offered me the role. I think in general now there's going to be something in between that, as I don't think many businesses opt for the more traditional approach anymore. They're trying to get the right people for the job, so you'll find yourself at more assessment centres and tests online before you actually get to an interview.

Throughout the process, I was nervous for all of my interviews, and that's completely natural. I think it's important not to confuse excitement and nerves, as they're very similar feelings. Looking back, I was actually quite excited to go to Microsoft, but there were nerves there as well. If you try not confuse the two as they can be quite misunderstanding.

A quick top tip for interviews is to do some research on the business you're applying for. This is often asked in the interview stage and, for Henry Boot, they were really impressed with the amount of research I'd got in and how well I understand the business already before I even joined. That's a really good point to take away.

Some of the benefits I see for apprenticeships, they've really given me the opportunity to seek different roles within construction and within Henry Boot. For example, I've worked alongside and shadowed estimators, quantity surveyors, and other people in other roles that I didn't even know really exist. This has been really helpful for me in understanding the processes within our business.

You also learn from professionals obviously. A lot of these people have been in their roles for a really long time and know them inside out, so you get to experience first-hand and learn from the best.

There's also the opportunity to meet like-minded individuals, so other apprentices and people who share similar interests with you which is really good and this creates both a social side and a networking side to the job.

Finally, one of the most important things for me is learning life skills to become a young professional. A lot of people now go through a traditional university route full-time but can miss out on key skills such as communication and presentation skills. Things that you don't pick up as much at the university but are really important in the workplace when it comes to real jobs.

It's also worth remembering that apprenticeships are real roles within a company. Henry Boot provides me with a laptop, a phone, a car. They also offer in-house training provided by QA, a reputable training provider. These tailor-made courses for Henry Boot run alongside my university work, which I found very helpful. They've actually intertwined each other over time. For example, at university I complete modules on reflection and self-awareness, and these work hand in hand and have been really good for my development.

One of my greatest achievements was reaching the interview stage at Microsoft. A quick tip what I've learned from this is actually when I when I first applied for the role, I didn't expect to get as far as as an interview, you know going down to the head office for a face-to-face interview.

So you know reach for the stars because you know you never know what might happen. And finally I'm most proud of the confidence I've gained and kind of communication skills you know. Before I started out I was quite a timid person and quite nervous not much confidence to go up on stage and talk to different people.

But an apprenticeship has really brought that that side out in me, and you know I now feel confident talking to CEOs, managing directors, but then also you know people from outside the company and in my day-to-day life as well. Finally just my advice to others as we've just discussed you know be ambitious you know if you see something but you think you know you might not you know you might not got the grades that they're asking for or something like that, just go for it because you never know what might happen. Even if it might take you 20 minutes to fill out an application form you know it then puts you in with a chance that it might just be what they're looking for.

Also research the organization. One of my top tips really you know look look into kind of you know if they're doing projects or people that they're working with and going with it with a list of questions you know if you know if you're not sure about how the culture works or anything like that it's always good to to research and and ask that. I think employers see that as a really good thing.

If you can't find what you're looking for, try to widen your search. This is something that I struggled with when first applying for apprenticeships. I applied for only marketing roles that were in a 10 mile radius for me and there weren't many up there weren't many of the right opportunities that I was looking for. However when I started searching for more general business roles that actually had bits of marketing in it as well, and also I set my radius a bit further so 10, 20, to 30 miles and that then brought up a lot more better opportunities that I could apply for. So you know there are there are trains and you know cars you know you you were able to make that commute. But yeah it's just something to um to look out for. Finally you don't have to know what you want to be to become an apprentice. I did a marketing course at college but I still wasn't 100% sure that marketing was what I wanted to go into for you know for a full-time job and things and things do change.

So now at Henry Boot I've told my manager that it's not a marketing role I'm looking to go into, I'd like to have more time in in different departments to kind of get a better understanding of of different roles.

I think at this moment in time looking for business development so so the sales aspect of it and a lot you'll be surprised that a lot of companies you know are more than happy to support you if you want to move roles so, just because you've applied for for a role in in engineering that's that doesn't mean you can't join the employer and then actually look to switch at a later date as well and try and get some experience elsewhere if you ask that to your manager. So I hope that's been useful, thanks for your time and if you are applying for apprenticeships or whatever you do in the future I wish you the very best of luck.

Thank you.

Hello my name is Connor Moir and I'm a firefighter with County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service, entering through the firefighter apprenticeship. I'm also a Young Apprentice Ambassador, so I'm here to talk to you about my experience going through an apprenticeship scheme.

So I'll start with a little bit about myself. I'm 23 years old and I attended Framwellgate School Durham for my GCSEs and then Durham Johnson Sixth Form for my A Levels, both of which are in Durham. I managed to do quite well out of this and got into all of my university choices, but I knew that it wasn't for me.

So instead I joined the Merchant Navy. In the Merchant Navy I studied in South Shields and then I went to sea in the Caribbean. I did this for two years but after two years I decided that this wasn't for me, so I joined the firefighter apprenticeship in May 2017.

Upon getting through all of my training I managed to get myself onto a whole time watch and now I'm on Spennymore Red Watch from May 2019 to the present.

What are the current rules and responsibilities of a firefighter and a firefighter apprentice? Well the most obvious one is emergency response.

So firefighters and firefighter apprentices can attend once they've completed the correct training, house fires, road traffic collisions, water, rescue from water, people entrapped, anything like that.

But this only accounts for about 10% of what a firefighter actually does. For the rest of the 90% we are conducting things such as business fire safety audits. So this is going to businesses to make sure they're compliant with the legislation, making sure that they're running safely.

Community safety. So this is attending functions and events, going into people's houses making sure that they've got working smoke alarms, giving them fire safety advice to make them safer in their own homes.

High risk visits. So this is attending places that are particularly high risk. So in Durham we have the Cathedral, so we familiarise ourselves with the Cathedral in the event that something was to happen in such a high risk area.

And ceremonial duties. I myself have personally had the honour of being the standard bearer for the Fire and Rescue Service and led the procession out for the Remembrance Parades in November 2019.

Every day is different meaning that these roles can very quickly interchange in between each other. So we could go to a house fire which very quickly turns into a community safety because we find out that the person who's had the fire may not be able to look after themselves well enough and that might have been the cause of the fire.

So every day is different because everything changes so rapidly. So for a firefighter or a firefighter apprentice it is quite vital that they are able to switch their hats very quickly.

So what does the recruitment process look like for a firefighter apprentice?

Well, the firefighter apprentice recruitment process is a lot very much the same as a whole time firefighter process. The only difference is, is that the application goes to New College Durham and it doesn't go to the Fire and Rescue Service itself because the New College, or the college of the apprenticeship, is the provider of the apprenticeship scheme.

So it started with some written tests. These are now online, so that's testing your numerical ability, your ability with numbers, your literacy skill and your ability to reason in certain situations. From that they score you and if you pass then you get to go on to the role-related tests.

These are physical tests and also mental because it's testing your physical ability. For example, in the ladder lift to lift ladders above your head, and in the equipment carry, and so you're carrying pieces of equipment on shuttle runs for an extended period of time and there's a time limit that you have to pass for that.

But it's also testing your mental ability to overcome fear. So climbing ladders up to a certain height and looking down and reading cards, and also crawling through very tight confined spaces and being able to turn around and come back in the tight spaces while it's also dark.

It's also your practical ability through equipment assemblies, so giving being given pieces of kit that you likely will have never seen before and being able to take them apart and put them back together when given instruction.

Provided that you pass those then you go onto the interview and a presentation.

This is a semi-formal interview and then a 10-minute presentation on anything that you like. So it's a lot of physical and mental preparation throughout the whole process.

Myself I prepared for these things. I had to do a lot of the written tests. They were very similar to the Merchant Navy application, so I had a lot of the resources beforehand. There's plenty of resources online. They'll give you plenty of, they won't give you the answers, but they'll give you heads up as to what kind of questions they might ask.

The role-related tests, that just meant a lot of time in the gym making sure that I was physically prepared for that. Physical fitness is an ongoing commitment for a firefighter. You're expected to maintain that fitness throughout the span of your career which could last up to 40 years, possibly more.

Then the interview and presentation. I did a lot of research on the Fire and Rescue Service that I was joining and the presentation I practiced over and over and over again. It was quite daunting to go through. It's a very formal process, but the reward is magnificent so it made it all worth it in the end.

So why do I think apprenticeships are great? Well first of all it's excellent on the job experience and life skills. From the very first day that you join on your apprenticeship you're in the industry that you want to work in and you're around the people that you're going to work with for the rest of your career while earning a wage and competitive salary.

You get industry recognised qualifications. So personally I'm a business fire safety level 3, which means that I can audit premises on their fire safety, which isn't something that every whole time firefighter recruit gets. They often just get the whole time firefighter training, which I've also had, but I'm getting things on top of that.

Recognition of achievements. I've been recognised for the work that I've done within the apprenticeship and you also get recognition of your milestones throughout the apprenticeship as well.

And additional opportunities. So through the apprenticeship I've been able to join the Young Apprentice Ambassador Network and that's given me the opportunity to go places and meet people that I never thought possible. I've met people from across the industry sectors and I've met loads of people who are very well driven and encourage each other to be the best that they can be and I think that's excellent.

So what's my advice to others who might be considering an apprenticeship or maybe on the fence?

The first of all is university isn't for everyone and that's completely fine. That's okay. I can't be more plain than that. University is a very viable path, but it isn't for everyone.

Apprenticeships are equally as viable if that is the way that you want to go and you never know where you're going to be in five years.

This is something that a college lecturer told me when I said that I was considering leaving the Merchant Navy. I thought I was going to be in the Merchant Navy for my entire career, but it didn't work out like that and that's fine.

It seems daunting, but you can always take the skills that you've learned in one place and take them somewhere else and transfer them over. So nothing is set in stone.

And finally, always be keen. Enthusiasm goes a very long way with employers. One willing person is worth 10 forced, which means that if you show that you're willing, you don't have to know everything about the trade that you're doing from the start.

Just as long as you're willing to learn and nobody can ask more of you than that.

Thank you very much.

Hello everyone my name is Ella and I'm a level 3 digital marketing apprentice and I work for Exeter College.

So as I said I do level 3 digital marketing, but that's very different to what my job role actually is. So although my course is very specific to digital marketing, so things like social media and email marketing, my actual job role is a lot more varied.

So on our team there's only actually two of us that do marketing towards apprenticeships, so everything my manager doesn't do I end up doing. So that can be things from digital marketing, that can be print marketing, things like flyers, posters, it can be things such as events. I arrange lots of events in the area, make sure we have everything ready, make sure people are going. I do things like presentations, so it's completely varied day to day, which is what I really love about my job.

Talking about the recruitment process and finding your first apprenticeship, so my biggest advice is don't give up. It's very very easy to get disheartened if you don't get an apprenticeship the first time, but what you have to remember is that when you're applying to apprenticeship it's not like applying to a college or a university, it's very much applying to an actual job, which means that you may apply to multiple different ones before you find the right place.

This might not be because of you, it could be because you're not right for the company, but it could also be because that company is not right for you, and not getting that job is probably a good thing because you might not have enjoyed it when you went in. So don't feel disheartened if you're not getting a job immediately.

I applied personally to maybe 30 different places before I got my job. That's completely normal and it's not something that you should ever be worried about.

If you do want to get your job quicker, maybe spend a lot of time working on your CV. Make sure you're changing it for each employer because they can actually tell. I know you might think they can't, but when they're faced with maybe 20 or 30 CVs it's very easy to spot out which ones are generic and which ones are more tailored to that company, and they're more likely to be seen.

Personally, my CV actually was one of the reasons that I got my job. So that might originally seem obvious, but what happened is on the day of the interview I was really unwell and I couldn't come in. I couldn't do the interview at all. Luckily, because my manager really liked my CV, she agreed to wait a week and let me come in when I was better and re-interview, and then obviously I got the job. So if it wasn't for my CV I wouldn't be here, I wouldn't have got this job. So it's really important to spend time on it.

Going for your interviews, you are going to be nervous. Everyone is nervous when they go for their interviews, even people that have done hundreds of interviews before it. There will always be a little bit of nerves and sometimes that's a good thing because it gives you that confidence that keeps you awake and keeps you engaged in that interview.

Employers do however know you are an apprentice. They know this might be the first job that you're ever applying to and they will be interviewing you as such. They're not expecting it to be the best interview you've ever done in the world and they understand that you might not have experience doing interviews.

But to prepare as much as you can, make sure you do your research before. Personally I tend to go on the company's website. I go on the company's About Us page and I look at that company's beliefs and values.

So look at what that company finds really really important. They might have a sort of motto or strap line that talks about certain characteristics that company likes to advertise. So that might be communication for instance. So that company says, you know, we're all about communication. Have a look at your past and see when you might have been a really good communicator, where communication might have helped you, and try and think of a little case study about communication and then try and bring that up in your interview because that shows not only that you research that company, but it shows that your values and your beliefs align with that company and it's going to make you a lot better candidate than some other people that haven't done that.

So personally I obviously think apprenticeships are great, which is why I'm here, but one of the best things a lot of people that are really really attracted to is the fact that there is no debt. You won't have to pay for any part of your apprenticeship at all. It's partly paid by your employer and partly paid by the government, so don't worry about that.

Which means that you can go from GCSE to degree level in apprenticeships. You can do a degree and they'll actually pay you for it. So apprenticeships are a really great opportunity to work your way up the career ladder without having to pay anything at all.

And you also get treated like an employee. So when I was looking for a apprenticeship, one thing I was worried about is that everyone was telling me that apprentices just made the team coffee or just shoved in a corner, which is partly, I think, some people have done work experience but that might have happened.

An apprenticeship is not work experience, it's completely different. You are an employee of that company and, to be honest, most employees can't afford to hire people just to make tea and coffee. It's very very unlikely to ever happen.

You'll be treated like an employee of that company, the same staff benefits, you'll get the same pension, everything, as if you were an employee of the company because you are an employee of that company. And you'll work there normally about four days a week and spend one day in college.

College is very very different to, for example, doing A Levels or doing GCSEs. So doing A Levels, GCSEs, you sort of go into college and there will be times when I was thinking, when would I ever need this?

But when you're doing an apprenticeship you can go into college one day, go into work the next day, and everything that you just learn in college you directly apply to your everyday job. And it's so rewarding because you can actually see things you're learning making your job easier and more efficient. It's a really really good opportunity.

On top of that you do get your student NUS cards, so that's always always a plus for many different people.

So finally, my advice to others. University is not for everyone. Don't feel pressured to go down one particular route because your school's telling you to, because your friends are telling you to, what your family is telling you to. You need to make sure it's the right option for you personally.

I did A Levels. I didn't enjoy them, but I did get good results so I could have gone to university if I wanted to. But I've had jobs since I was 14 and I've always really really enjoyed working, so an apprenticeship was just the perfect option for me because I was able to combine my love of working and learning on the job and sort of the academic side of going to college.

So I go to college one day a week and it's given me the chance not only to earn and to learn, but it's given me the experience. So not only am I coming out my friendship with a qualification, I'm also coming out my apprenticeship with two years of experience in my job role in marketing, which is so valuable to employers, sometimes more valuable than the qualification itself.

So that experience is what's really going to put you above the rest when we're going to look for jobs.

So that's everything from me. If you have any questions please feel free to ask anything to do with apprenticeships and marketing, or you can come and have a chat to me at the end.

But thank you very much for listening.

Hi everybody, my name is Syeda Tasmia Tahir and I work as the Executive Officer for the Resources Division at a government department called UK Export Finance, but more importantly I am a Business Admin level 4 apprentice, also known as a higher apprentice, and today I'm here as a Young Ambassador for Apprenticeships to talk to you guys about my experience with apprenticeships, how I got into apprenticeships, and also probably share some of the tips and tricks that I've learned along the way. So I hope you enjoy my presentation.

First of all, I would like to talk to you guys about a day in my typical work life. This varies every day because the department that I work for is quite small in comparison to other government departments, which means I get to see a whole different range of different activities within my organisation. I get to wear different hats and participate in different groups. I get to train others. I get to receive training from others as well.

A lot of my day-to-day work is supporting people with very complex HR-related queries, whether they're at the very start of their journey at UK Export Finance or they're leaving the organisation and everywhere in between, including when they have been working from home and in preparation for the pandemic, in preparation for any incident or any event as well. I get to work with senior colleagues. I get to learn a lot from them. I also get to support people, so I get some very helpful comments like the one you guys can see at the bottom.

I also get to talk to people and do presentations to do awareness, for example. So this is a representative picture of when I would do briefings to people or do presentations to introduce new topics and ideas to them. Another thing I'm very proud of at work is that I'm a Mental Health First Aider, so I get to also participate in the wellbeing side of things. I get to work with colleagues and help colleagues not only by providing direct mental health first aid but also organising more awareness activities and organising events like the poster you see over here where I organized a Time to Talk event for our colleagues, like a coffee-sharing event.

And as part of all of this, recently I got nominated for the BAME apprenticeship awards and I am a finalist apprentice, so hopefully I get to hear soon if I make it or not and I can give you an update on that if you're interested.

I want to talk about my journey to this role. So the photo you see on the left over here is a photo that I took for my very first ever apprenticeship interview back in 2015. So I'd applied for an apprenticeship position at the BBC, went through all the different steps and I got an interview. Long story short, I didn't make it and at that point if you had told me that five years on I'd be standing at the same spot waiting to be interviewed as part of National Apprenticeship Week to very much do what I'm doing right now, talk about my journey as an apprentice, I really wouldn't have believed it.

And if you had told that to the girl sitting her A Levels, it would never have even occurred to me that apprenticeships were even an option. I went to a very selective sixth form, a state sixth form, but even before that when I went to a comprehensive school, the whole idea that I was always told about was university and the journey of that ultimately meant that I ended up applying to university, not really liking the course I was doing. Some things happened two months in where I just felt this was not what I wanted to do. I was not happy with the experience and I left from there. I then did some part-time work before I started looking into apprenticeships and ended up here. So I hope that's something that people can remember when they make those decisions.

For me, apprenticeships are a great option because I really love my job, I really love my experience, but I wanted to share why that's important for me.

An apprenticeship for me is very important and very great because it's real employment. It's a real job. I'm not there as an intern, I'm not there as a trainee, I'm there as a real employee doing real work, learning real things. I get to make decisions, so that in itself is a great opportunity because I get to see different parts of the organisation. I get to have a holistic view of what's happening, understand how different parts of the organisation work together, but equally this also helps me build on my own skills, helps me build my own understanding of my industry and really paves my own understanding to support me in making the next decisions and the next steps in my career.

It also means I get to learn from colleagues. I get to work with very senior colleagues, I get to work with colleagues on the same level and also junior colleagues. The experience of working with all these different people in these multi-skilled teams means I get to learn so much from each and every person that I work with.

I also network, so I get to learn about opportunities from them. One of the things that has come out of it is working with some colleagues and we've come up with our very own BAME network at work, for example. I got nominated to be one of the spokespersons for the network, so again that was something that came out of working with different colleagues and others appreciating the skills that I have, something that I personally would never have put up my hand and said this is something I can do. So that's been a really big opportunity and also a big benefit for me.

Also I get to improve my own skills and I get to have new learning. The whole idea of an apprenticeship is that you're going to learn new things. You're going to learn a new skill or learn about a subject. So doing the Business Admin apprenticeship means I'm learning constantly and I can implement each of those little new bits of learning into my day-to-day work, making me a better employee but also making me a more skilled person.

And lastly it gives me a work-life balance. If I were to be working full-time and then doing a degree or then doing a separate qualification, I would have to work extra hard and I would have to cut out the time that I have for my personal life with my family and my friends. Whereas being an apprentice means I get to have one day a week, so 20% of my actual paid work time, to do my learning, to do my assignments, to do my extra reading. That in itself is a great opportunity for me because I can then spend other time with my family doing other things that I like, doing things that I enjoy, and that means I get to have a more balanced life.

Talking a little bit about the recruitment process, personally the recruitment process that I went through was an online application which included a CV, personal statement and something called Success Profiles. These will depend on different topics that you pick or whatever organization you apply for. It would be a set of questions based on relevant skills for the role.

It would also include something along the lines of a situational judgment test. Mine was called the Civil Service Judgment Test. This includes things like giving you day-to-day scenarios and asking how you would react. Then there was also a verbal and numerical test, which is an English and Maths competency test, and then finally there was an assessment centre and then a final interview, which all culminated in me getting my role.

Some roles might not have all that many steps. Some of them might only have an online application, some of them might have an interview and some of them might have a mix of them all. But I think each of the steps has its own different value to it. The thing to remember always with the recruitment process is that the reason why they're putting out a recruitment campaign is because they want someone to be there. They're not there to catch you out. They're there to support you through the process.

If you ever feel that you need to ask a question, if you ever feel that there's something that's going to prevent you from doing your best, make sure you let them know because they will put in mitigations for you or they can support you in other ways.

And always, if you're not sure about a question, ask. Ask, ask, ask. Ask them to read the question or explain it in a different way. They're always happy to do that.

Recruiters, particularly as someone who now works within the HR area, I can see how recruitment works and I see that recruiters really want to support the best candidate to come out and help you do your best in that application and in that process, however that might be.

One top tip for me is to read the job description, read your application, read up on the values and names of the company. See if this is the role for you. See if this is the company for you. Also before you start doing your application, think about examples where you can relate to the skills and the ideas that are coming up in the actual job description to your own experience.

It doesn't necessarily mean that you have to have loads of professional experience. It can be any experience from your personal life, from doing voluntary activities, from your school or college life and anything else in between, as long as it's linking to those key skills that they're looking for.

A note on assessment centres. A lot of people are scared of assessment centres. Personally I was scared of assessment centres as well, which meant that I did a lot of them in the sense that I applied to Barclays, RBS, the BBC and also the Civil Service. By the end of it I had passed all of those assessment centres.

But the thing to remember is when I first applied for each of them, I didn't make it and for me it felt like the end of the world. I felt like this is the end, I don't know how to do it. But every time you feel that you're not able to do something, reflect back on the experience and think about where things have gone wrong or where things can be improved.

Also don't ever shy away from asking for feedback because recruiters love that and they can provide you with tips that you can make use of the next time you apply.

In my experience, something that I've personally found very valuable was personal leadership. When you're in that assessment centre, it is about leadership, but leadership isn't about the loudest voices. It's about the person who's taking notes. It's also about the person who's reading all the instructions, the person who's keeping the team to time, saying, "Guys, we don't have that long to discuss this", the person who's standing up for others, the person who's making sure that not one person is taking control of the whole thing and making sure everyone gets to have their opinions across.

It's so much more than just being able to solve the questions in there. It's more about displaying these values and skills because ultimately these are the skills that we really use at work and everything else we can learn along the way. But being able to be a team player and being able to look out for the team is key. It is absolutely essential in succeeding in an apprenticeship, but in any role in general.

So the last words from me and some advice from me. In my experience, first of all, never be afraid to learn. Even if something hasn't gone the right way, make sure you use it as a learning opportunity and learn something from it, whether it's by asking people for feedback, whether it's reflecting on your experience, whether it's trying to do it again. Always, always be open to learning.

The other point being, no question is a bad question. If you're confused about something, always ask that question because you might not be the only one asking that question. That in itself can make you stand out from everyone else as being the first person to notice a problem and understand that something's wrong.

Don't be afraid to get involved in as much as you can, whether it's extracurricular and voluntary activities or whether it's within the workplace when you get your role. Being involved in different groups and different activities, always be open to doing some extra things because that will always add new skills to your life.

With that, it goes without saying, be open-minded and say yes to opportunities. A lot of the time we say no because we think we've not got all the right skills, but the truth is even if you're not 100%, you can learn those skills along the way and it will be your learning opportunity. So never be afraid to say yes to an opportunity.

Always remember the bigger picture. Think about what is going to be the next step for yourself. It's not necessarily the case that you're going to continue in the same role. Some people do. In fact, most people continue working with the same employer after they complete their apprenticeship. But you don't have to think of it as your be-all and end-all, that if I get this apprenticeship that's it, that's where I'm going to be for the rest of my life.

Be open to taking everything one step at a time, but equally think about how it fits into the bigger picture of who you are and who you want to be.

And lastly, you don't have to be perfect, you just have to be persistent. That's something that I've learned along the way and I'm still learning. I hope you will consider an apprenticeship as a part of your learning journey and your next step.

Good morning to everyone watching this. My name is Lucy and today I'm going to be showing you what it means to be an apprentice.

As you can see, officially my title at work is Business Support Assistant and I work at a local council called Stroud District Council. I am also studying a Level 3 NVQ in Business Administration.

Stroud District Council is a local authority for the Stroud district. This means we work towards improving the community in Stroud and providing better services for our residents. I work in the Systems and Improvement Team, which is dedicated to maintaining the systems that the council has in place. One of these is a housing management system.

A housing management system is responsible for managing data for our tenant residents and making sure everything runs smoothly for them. This can include housing repairs, gas services due, or helping them with their tenancy. As such, I deal with processes and policies in my day-to-day job that ensure everything is up to date and working as it should be.

This can be, for example, the complaints process or making sure tenants' profiles are up to date with their contact details.

As I'm sure you've noticed, I've got a picture of me at my workplace there, which was taken when we held an Apprentice Open Evening in February earlier this year. This slightly scary-looking building is what I am proud to call my workplace, and this is the headquarters for Stroud District Council.

So, what does the recruitment process involve if you want to apply for an apprenticeship?

How I found my current apprenticeship was on the GOV.UK website. There are, of course, other methods of finding an apprenticeship, such as going on Indeed.com. However, most apprenticeships will be advertised on the GOV.UK website.

When you have submitted an application and get an interview, you need to be mindful of what to expect. For example, aside from the normal questions an employer will ask, they may also get you to do activities such as, "What is one thing you would bring with you on a desert island?" to really get to know you better as an individual.

It's also natural to be nervous when being interviewed, but you can combat this by doing a lot of preparation. For example, getting your friends or parents to interview you.

So why do I think apprenticeships are great? You can earn while you learn, so you don't have any student debt to carry with you when you finish your course. You can also learn new skills. In my case, I was able to design a logo for my service, which you can see on the right here.

Not only this, but you learn how to network and build your career contacts. Of course, you can also save money by using an NUS student card to get discounts.

If I could give you one thing to take away from today, it is that apprenticeships are so much more than you think. You may not be able to get to where you want to be on the first try, and that's okay. It's all part of the learning process and you will get better over time.

You will learn things that you've never even thought of before and be able to experience opportunities that will benefit your learning. Even if you get rejected for a job, don't give up. It's not the end of the world, and if one door closes, it just means another will open for you.

Keeping a positive mindset is key to getting where you want to be in the future. I always say the best kind of apprentices are the ones who never stop learning, because it's true. There's so much more you can learn. Every time you do learn something, it will benefit you in so many ways.

For example, I've achieved so much this year that wasn't possible before, but taking my apprenticeship has made it possible for me.

Now we're coming to the end of my presentation. So this may be the end of my story, but it could be the start of yours.

Thank you so much for watching from wherever you are, and I'll leave you with a good morning, good afternoon, good evening and good night from me.

Thank you.

My name is Joe Turner and with me today we have Samuel Clarke. We're both Level 6 Engineering Apprentices at Edwards.

In our day-to-day lives, we're going through different placements at work and getting to experience work life in a range of different job roles. This includes working on the shop floor, in design departments, customer support and core technology departments.

Our typical day differs from day to day and we're always working on different projects and with different people.

The recruitment process. So, for me, it was a bit different from Joe. I attended a college apprenticeship evening and I saw Edwards there as a stand. I went over and talked to a couple of the employees, and it sounded like a really good opportunity.

So I found Edwards on the Government website and applied using my CV. After that, I attended the first interview day and that's where we did some team-building exercises and a couple of little tests.

I then got called back for a second interview day. For that, I had to research a WESP from work and explain how it works. A WESP is a Wet Electrostatic Precipitator.

I felt really proud to complete this because it was a new experience and I think I did really well.

My experience was very similar to Sam's. I found the apprenticeship advertisement on the Government website and applied through there. I went through all the same steps as Sam and ended up getting offered the apprenticeship and chose to take it.

Why I think apprenticeships are great. I think me and Joe have very similar thought processes behind this.

You get to earn while you learn. There's no university debt and you get a fully paid degree if you do a Level 6 apprenticeship.

I am more confident and more social. I speak to my colleagues outside of work, which is really nice.

My biggest achievement to date is passing all my exams with scores above 80%.

My advice to others. If you're unsure what to do, do an apprenticeship.

I think the key points behind it are that there's no university debt, you get to earn money and you gain experience. If you can get a degree apprenticeship, which is what myself and Joe are on, it's a win-win.

Thank you for listening.

Thank you.

Hi everyone, my name is Joe Maggs. I'm a Financial Control Apprentice working for BT, based in Bristol, and I'm on an Accounting and Taxation Professional Apprenticeship, which is one of those Level 7 apprenticeships that Mike was mentioning just now.

I just want to take a bit of time to talk about why I chose an apprenticeship, what I'm doing on one, and why I think they're so great really.

So, if I start talking about my current role and responsibilities. First and foremost, I'm an accountant essentially, and with that I have a few various responsibilities.

I carry out financial transactions that reflect BT's operations. As an example, I'll record the payment of farmers for the use of their land for telegraph poles.

I'm responsible for ensuring BT's finances are complete and accurate. As another example, I'll look at one of our bank accounts, look at the balance on it, let's say it's £25 million. I then need to check all the evidence related to that bank account to make sure it adds up to the £25 million.

In addition, I also prevent any error or fraud from taking place. Linked to the above, I make sure there's a trail of evidence and authorisation for any transactions.

I also act as an expert in accounting for the rest of the business. On a monthly basis, I'll report back to other departments in BT regarding their finances and consult them on any issues that we might have discovered within the month and how we'll sort those out.

I'd say to be good at this sort of role, it's definitely not about being good at maths. I definitely wasn't good at maths at school. I think it's much more about communication, teamwork and problem-solving, although I've definitely found that my Business Studies GCSE and A Level have helped, just having that business knowledge.

Why I think apprenticeships are great. One of the reasons is the people you work with. You can see on the right there a picture of me and a call with my colleagues earlier this year when we were working from home.

With an apprenticeship, you can get an equivalent qualification to what you'd get at uni, but without any of the debt. By the end of this scheme, I'll have a Master's degree-level qualification, but I've paid absolutely nothing for it.

You also get experience in the industry, which gives your career a head start. Again, as an example, by the time my peers who chose to do an accounting degree at university graduate, I'll already be three years ahead of them in terms of experience. That opens up exciting, well-paid and rewarding roles much earlier on in your career.

You get to get stuck in with real and exciting work. For me, after sitting my A Levels, the idea of just studying for three more years to pass exams didn't really appeal to me.

I much prefer where I am at the moment, working in a real, fast-paced business environment where I have real responsibilities and my actions have real consequences.

You get to earn money from the get-go. For my apprenticeship, you start at age 18 on £18,500 per year, and by the end of the scheme you're looking at around £37,000 per year.

Even with that, the student discount still applies. You can get an NUS Apprentice Extra card and that gets you things like 10% off at ASOS and the Co-op and places like that. So it's almost the best of both worlds in some respects.

My advice to others about apprenticeships. First of all, if you can't decide between university or an apprenticeship, then I'd apply for both. With my apprenticeship, when you apply after college and after A Levels, you can do UCAS at the same time and you don't have to decide which route you're going to take until A Level results day.

That's what happened with me. I applied to do Business at university and also applied to various apprenticeships. In the end, come August, I decided to do the apprenticeship.

I'd say apply to as many as possible and don't give up. It is a really competitive process to get an apprenticeship, much more so than university. I applied with Greencore, Siemens, Morrisons, TUI, Thatcher's Cider and probably even more that I've forgotten about because I didn't even get a response to my application.

But in hindsight, BT was the last company to offer me a job role, but it was definitely the best choice. So I'd say persevere with it. It will be worth it in the end.

Keep an open mind. I definitely did not think I would. I've never said, "When I grow up, I want to be an accountant". But I knew I liked business and I liked my Business Studies GCSE and A Level. When I was looking for apprenticeships, I saw a finance one in accounting and when I thought about it, I realized that actually the finance aspect of my A Level was what I enjoyed studying the most, so it made sense in the end.

There might be a career out there that you've not even thought of that could be the perfect apprenticeship for you.

Preparation is always key. Research is always key when you're applying for an apprenticeship because they're so competitive. Do your research. Link it into your application. Link it into your interview answers, because it really does make you stand out and gives you the best chance.

I think I'd finally say to face your fears and throw yourself into the opportunities you're given.

It is a daunting prospect going into a work environment the day after leaving school, but if you take things one step and one day at a time, before long it's been three or four months and you're taking the lead on things. You are becoming an expert in what you're doing. You'll be more confident, and you'll realize, as was definitely the case for me, you'll think: "Where's that come from? I thought I'd never be able to do that."

But an apprenticeship really does give you that support and foundation to develop so many different skills.

I'd just like to finish by saying this is my secret weapon if you're interested in apprenticeships. If you just search "Find an Apprenticeship" or go to the Government apprenticeship website, it's got all the opportunities in your area, from ones you can do straight after leaving secondary school to those available after college and A Levels.

It's how I found all of mine to apply for and it was really, really useful.

So that's my parting gift to you all.

Hi, my name is Michelle Blackwell. I'm currently studying to become a Chartered Legal Executive. I've been doing the Level 6 Apprenticeship for three years now. Essentially, I started on a level 3 Apprenticeship for the first two years and then progressed onto a level 6 Apprenticeship. At the end of my apprenticeship, which is due to finish next September, I'll be a Chartered Legal Executive.

As it stands, I'm currently working as a Paralegal at Bevan Brittan, so I assist fee earners with the daily conduct of a range of litigated cases. We basically work in the medical negligence profession, so we defend medical claims that patients bring against doctors.

As a Chartered Legal Executive Apprentice, I work alongside many experienced legal professionals and I assist on about 60 active cases. My daily workload is very varied. It can range from drafting legal documents to attending conferences, liaising with our witnesses, speaking to experts and obtaining expert reports to advise clients.

We are also very focused on being client-driven and ensuring that clients are kept up to date with what's happening in their cases.

I really like the fact that my apprenticeship is very flexible. I've always had one day per week for studying and, up until now, that was for my exams. Now that I've finished my exams, I'm preparing a portfolio of work to submit before I qualify.

As I said, it's very flexible. I can change my study day depending on my caseload and what I have on during my working week. Bevan Brittan are also very accommodating, and I can even split my study time into afternoons or arrange it in any way that works around my workload. It has been very beneficial for me to have that good balance.

The recruitment process I got my apprenticeship through Vision Apprentices, but I'm pretty sure you can apply through the Government website as well.

I essentially applied through an online application form and then Vision Apprentices got in contact with me. I had a telephone interview initially and then they put me forward for a few more online assessments. I think I had a Maths test and an English test.

I was then invited back for an assessment day at Bevan Brittan. The assessment day consisted of me meeting with a group of other candidates. We had an initial group interview and an assessment task where we had to imagine we were stranded on a desert island and decide which three items we would choose from a list.

From a recruitment perspective, they are very interested in seeing how you cooperate with other people. I would say try to be clear with your communication, try to be confident and get your point across, but also give other people in your group time to speak, listen and share ideas. Make sure everyone is contributing to the task.

I think it really shows if you come across as friendly and you're just excited to be there on the day. Be positive.

After the initial group assessment, we then moved on to individual interviews. That was more like a standard interview process, and my tips for that would be to be very prepared and confident on the day.

Ensure that you ask questions back and are fully engaged in the process. I always try to make sure that when they ask at the end if you have any questions, I ask something that demonstrates an interest in the company.

For example, 'What does a typical working day look like? What are the progression opportunities within the firm?'

Questions like these show you're interested in the firm itself and that you've done some research and want to learn more about it.

I would definitely recommend preparing thoroughly for the interview, but don't get too nervous because I think that can come across as well. Just try to be as confident as possible and make sure you're prepared.

After the individual interviews, I also had a written test on the day, so it was quite an intense recruitment process.

I originally also applied for university and apprenticeships initially. The apprenticeships were as a backup because I'd always been pushed towards doing the traditional route of going to university and getting a law degree. Then after speaking to quite a few people who had law degrees who were coming out of university applying for training contracts I realised it was a very competitive market to be in and that training contracts are very difficult to get.

So I really wanted to also make sure that I had the experience and that it was the career that I wanted to go into so I thought the idea of working on the job and having that flexibility to learn while you essentially earn, I thought that was a really good way to get into the profession and I feel like it has paid off because my firm have kept me on and are willing to pay for the rest of my qualifications to get qualified. And this would also go alongside somebody my age coming out of university who would now be applying for a training contract whereas I've got five years worth of experience within the legal sector.

So I do feel like it has massively benefited me and the opportunities I've had as well have just been amazing in comparison to I might not have had them at university.

So as I said there are so many benefits to an apprenticeship. You get industry experience in your chosen field. Even if you're not interested in a law degree there's so many different apprenticeships now that you can undertake. You get your foot through the door of a company, you're getting the experience to make sure that this is actually the career you want to be in and you're working alongside professionals who can give you their spin on things, their experience, their take on their career and how they progress. I feel like that is also very beneficial because they have real world experience so they can tell you things that didn't go so well in their career or they can advise you what they think would be good for you.

So yeah I'd definitely say the experience out of it is really really beneficial. On top of that you don't get the university debt. A lot of firms and a lot of companies will just pay for your qualifications to get fully qualified and you get a wage and the flexibility as I said earlier of learning while you are on the job.

In my particular apprenticeship I will be qualifying as a Chartered Legal Executive and then I'm also discussing at the moment prospects to qualify as a solicitor so once I'm chartered there is a route for progression to get to a solicitor. I think it's using the SQE now so I think the previous route will now be out of date but yeah so there is. Also with my particular route as a Chartered Legal Executive there are also routes to become a barrister or a partner if you don't actually want to qualify as a solicitor so there are so many different options now. It's not just one size fits all.

So I think apprenticeships are particularly great because of the competitive salary while avoiding university debt. As I said you get transferable skills, recognition from your employer. I've also had the experience of getting recognition for my work in national awards which has been an amazing opportunity as well. You also have a range of company benefits and perks. I know a lot of companies do health incentives or do gym memberships and things like that. You've got annual leave. I personally don't feel like I've missed out on the university experience because I've been able to travel from my wages and I've gone to so many different places which I might not have even been able to afford if I'd gone to university. I also had the time off so I could still go and see my friends at university and have that experience anyway.

So I also have had, as I said, a range of different exciting challenges and new opportunities. One of these was as I mentioned earlier I was recognised for a few awards as well at the national level and this then led me to become involved in the government campaign for promoting apprenticeships. It's called the Fire It Up Apprenticeships and you might have seen these sort of Fire It Up posters around. They did two different launches so they also did a TV campaign which I was really lucky to be a part of and yeah it was just a really really good experience.

So my advice to others would be to try and get as much experience as possible in the field that you do want to go into. So before I undertook my apprenticeship I actually did a week's work experience at a criminal law firm and that was really really interesting to get that side of things to see what it was like to be in a law firm day to day, but then it also did make me think as much as I really enjoyed the criminal law side of things it wasn't actually the career that I wanted to go into and so then I applied for legal business apprenticeships in corporate firms and I also applied for clinical negligence which is where I'm currently in today.

So I would also ask your teachers for guidance. If you've got a careers mentor they're a great place to start as well if you're unsure about what you want to do for your future or you just want some advice about the particular industry you want to go into or even just to kind of pick out your strengths and see what works for you and what you think you would want to do in the future because I know it is a very difficult time to be 16, 17, 18 and trying to figure out what you want to do for the rest of your life.

So I definitely say make an informed decision. Get a range of different views, your teachers, parents, friends. If you want to speak to your friends about it as well say like I'm really passionate about this and this might be something that you want to go into and so going onto that I would say consider your strengths and your passions. What do you enjoy most? What do you get most passionate about? Don't always focus on which is the most highly paid job because you could get into that career and not enjoy what you're doing day to day.

So I'd say definitely, and speaking from experience as well because I think the money side of things also did attract me to law, but I'm lucky that I do enjoy it day to day. So I would say find something you enjoy first and the money will come after and in any career there's always routes for progression and there's always, if you're really good at something, you will get the money you deserve for it.

So yeah I would just say consider your strengths and passions first and as I said before, consider all your options before making the decision. If you're applying for apprenticeships keep your options open. If you want to apply for the university route as well I think that's good to also keep your option open with that and don't get too disheartened if you don't get the apprenticeship that you apply for first.

I think I applied for probably about 10 to 15 apprenticeships when I was originally starting out and I did go to an assessment day before Bevan Brittan as well which I didn't get. So I think that can always be a bit of a knock of confidence at first but you can always learn from it and take. I definitely took things that I learned from the assessment day into the assessment day for Bevan Brittan. I feel like that did actually really benefit me in getting this role.

So yeah I'd say keep applying, stay positive and just make sure as well when you're picking your A levels that you pick topics that you enjoy as well and not just what people expect you to pick or what you think you should pick for the career you need to go into. Do your research, find the career that you do want to go into and then make your A-level choices off of that but also think about what you are really good at because that will really help you and it will really help you to enjoy the two years of A levels as well because it can be a very stressful time.

So I think the most important thing is to just enjoy yourself and work hard. So thank you so much.

I'm Manpreet Kaur Shoker and I'm a mechanical engineering apprentice at MBDA. Today I'll be talking to you about my career and how I got to where I am.

So to start off with, I'll talk about my role and responsibilities. My role and responsibility overall is to get an understanding of how engineering works within real life. This kind of experience you'll never get in university or doing your degree. It's something you could only get in an apprenticeship, I believe. So whatever I learn in the classroom, I'll be able to apply straight into work.

Currently, I'm in a placement called BMP, which is Business and Performance. This is more of a business placement, and I'll explain later on why I'm there. My role involves bidding for new contracts, understanding the risk of projects, and managing projects as a whole. There's no typical day.

Just a bit about the recruitment process. Obviously, I applied after my GCSEs. Whilst I was revising for my GCSEs, I was applying for all these different companies that offered apprenticeships, not just MBDA. Unfortunately, I didn't get in. I didn't get any of the places that I actually applied for, and so this led me to going to college and doing my BTEC in Engineering to extend my knowledge in engineering because, obviously, at school I didn't have that much exposure.

After my BTEC, I reapplied and I again got rejected. Only after I had done the online testing did they realise that I was quite a good candidate for the company, and that I was the kind of person they're looking for. They did actually reconsider me during my recruitment process. So I got rejected and then I got considered again.

I got invited for the interview day, which is more of an assessment day. All they do is take you on a tour around the site so you can see where you'll be working potentially. You can ask any questions, and if they've got any questions, you can answer them. Then you have a team project task where they can see how you work in a team and see how you interact with other people as well.

Lastly, we had an interview on the day where they asked you to bring a portfolio of all your work that you've been doing that could show them your skills and strengths, making you a good candidate for them to hire.

After the assessment day, I think it was literally within two days, I got my place at MBDA, which I was so happy about. I wasn't too keen on the idea of going to university, even though that was my plan B after my BTEC. So yeah, I was over the moon that I got my apprenticeship.

Some advice that I would give is to be relaxed. If you're confident that you'll do the right job, just be yourself, basically. Think about what you want to say in the interview. It's very good to have some questions for them because, as well as them interviewing you, you're interviewing them as well.

So why do I think apprenticeships are great? You're able to develop your personal skills. There have been lots of situations that I've been put into where I've been able to develop my communication skills, understand what the other person wants, and be able to talk to them in a way that helps negotiate with them. It has helped me become more comfortable and confident in my own skin.

Being able to apply what I learned in the classroom to real-life situations, which I mentioned before, is a great way of putting into use what you've learned in the classroom. Otherwise, you're just learning it and then forgetting it.

Another thing is getting paid and having no debt. Obviously, apprenticeships pay for education. You might have to pay for a percentage of it, but with my company, I'm quite lucky and don't need to. There's no debt like there would be at university.

I've been able to take responsibility and get praise for the work that I do. You are part of the team. They don't just see you as an apprentice; they see you as part of the team, even though you're still learning and getting a feel for what they do. They really do value apprentices and their opinions.

Being able to get an insight into how a company works is another benefit. All companies work differently, whether they're small or large, but you always get an understanding of how a company operates. It's also a great way of networking.

Again, apprentices provide a company with a new pair of eyes. Some companies can become very set in their ways and think that their way is the right way to do things. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't, but things can always be improved. They do value an apprentice's view on things because they are a new set of eyes in the company and are not locked into one way of thinking.

My advice to others would be to take any opportunities that come your way. You'll definitely learn something from them. There have been situations where I've been put into something and wasn't keen about it, but I definitely learned something from the experience.

For example, there have been times when I wasn't very good at negotiation, but by being put into those situations and being given opportunities to negotiate with others, you definitely learn from them.

Never give up. Things happen for a reason. Obviously, I didn't get into MBDA the first time, but everything happened for a reason. I'm actually quite glad that I did my BTEC before starting my apprenticeship because I gained that knowledge as well.

Do your research. The world is your oyster and you just have to make it happen. During my GCSEs, I did a lot of research on companies whilst revising, and it definitely paid off.

Another thing with apprenticeships is that they're quite flexible. I knew I wanted to go into engineering, but I didn't know what kind of engineering or what I wanted to do. I really didn't have a clue. Being in a company allows you to understand the overall picture of how it functions. That is the reason why I'm in Business and Performance right now: to understand how projects are managed. When I'm in an engineering role, that knowledge will help me understand how to interact with those other departments.

Thank you for listening, and I hope that helped.

Hi everyone. It's really good to talk to you today. My name is Neilesh Champaneri. I'm an electrician from a company called Derby Homes, and I'm also part of the East Midlands Young Apprenticeship Ambassador Network.

Now, I did a Level 3 Advanced Apprenticeship in Electrical Installation, which was three and a half years long, and now I've been qualified for two and a half years. I'm working in Derby Homes as part of an Electrical Inspection and Testing team.

At Derby Homes, we help to repair and maintain over 13 and a half thousand homes throughout the city of Derby, and as part of the team I carry out electrical safety inspections, essential maintenance, and repairs all over the city.

So today, hopefully I'm just going to give you a bit of insight into apprenticeships, what my experience was, and actually how I found my apprenticeship.

I saw my apprenticeship vacancy listed on the Find an Apprenticeship website. You can go to gov.uk/apply-apprenticeship and you can find all the apprenticeship vacancies listed there. Remember, these vacancies are nationwide, so you'll need to use the filters to find the apprenticeship that is going to be in your area, or you can use them to filter different industries that you're interested in.

Depending on the circumstances, whether it's in person or virtually, apprenticeship open days can be a really good opportunity to get out there and meet potential employers. I went to an apprenticeship open day at my local college and I was able to meet my employer, have a one-to-one chat, and find out a bit more about the apprenticeship and what it would involve.

Usually, it's a good idea to find out things about what the course might involve that goes alongside your apprenticeship. Think about the grades that might be required for your apprenticeship. These are all good little things to know before you actually decide to apply for your chosen apprenticeship.

But really, why did I choose my apprenticeship? After leaving school and finishing my GCSEs, I kept my options open and I did actually start my A-levels, but I found very quickly that it just wasn't going to be right for me. So I left my A-levels after maybe a week or so and I actually went to college and started my electrical course, and that was something I was interested in.

Also, I thought about being a professional chef, so I had a part-time job in a professional kitchen. After about two years of working in the professional kitchen and also doing my electrical course, I knew that electrical work was the thing that I was really interested in more. So I knew which apprenticeship sector I wanted to go into after college, and I knew that the best way to get qualified in electrical work was by doing an apprenticeship. That's why I chose to do an apprenticeship.

The appeal of having practical skills and a real wage really appealed to me because if you're earning and learning, it's like the best of both worlds.

So if you're looking for apprenticeship vacancies, you've got to look at what's going to be right for you. Don't just follow the crowd. Don't just do the things that your friends are doing. Look at what's going to be good for you. Look for things that are going to benefit you, things that you're good at and enjoy.

Even if you have your heart set on university, you want to do your A-levels and go to university, have you considered doing a higher or degree apprenticeship where you can do a degree and an apprenticeship at the same time? The bonus is that you don't come out with any student debt at the end of it.

The application process for my apprenticeship was actually quite a long one. It was a three-step process which involved, first, an initial assessment in college where I had to do assessments in Maths, Science, and ICT. Then I was invited for a formal interview which was done in a speed-dating style. It was a little bit different to a traditional interview. My second interview was part of a team-building day, which you can see in the pictures there.

The reason the company did this is because they want to know how good you are as an individual, but also how good you can be as part of a team. Being good on your own is all good and well, but can you be a team player and a team leader? How good are your personal skills? Companies really appreciate seeing these skills in candidates.

My top tips for going forward in the application process are, first, practice, practice, practice. If you've got a friend, your parents, or someone at college who has interview skills or has been through interviews, go through some practice questions with them.

Also, do some research on the company you're going to interview for. Things like how many employees they have and how long they've been in business. Employers really do appreciate it when you take that extra step to find out a bit more about them.

The way you dress is actually really important. When I went for my interview, I saw people turning up in tracksuits, joggers, hoodies, you name it, and it just doesn't set a good first impression. Taking that extra step, maybe putting on a shirt or a tie, employers do appreciate that and it will be noticed.

Actually doing my apprenticeship, it was a full-time job. It was a 37-hour working week and that included one day released to college. I really enjoyed having that practical skill and working day in and day out because I think there's only so much you can learn from a textbook or from a lecturer.

Granted, I had some great lecturers, but that knowledge in the classroom could only take you so far. It's only when I got out of the classroom and started to apply what I was learning in real-life situations that it really came to life. I started learning much faster that way.

Even as an apprentice, I was able to enjoy full company benefits, things like sick pay, holiday pay, and even flexible working hours. My advice is, if you're doing an apprenticeship, get involved as much as you can and have fun while you're doing it. My company does things like community projects and charity days, and that added to my experience of being an apprentice.

I've also included this slide because I wanted to show you that you can still get that gap year or university experience while being an apprentice. Even though I was working full-time and studying, I was still able to travel the world because I had the money to do so. I didn't have to borrow from the bank of mum and dad. I was able to do things like buy a car. You can still get that gap year or university-style experience while you're doing an apprenticeship.

After the programme, I'm now a fully qualified electrician. I've got a recognised qualification, and my company has paid for further qualifications that I can take to add to my qualifications.

Now my options after completing my apprenticeship are completely endless. I can do almost anything I want to do, whether that's staying with my company, setting up my own business, or going to work abroad. It really is limitless.

I've got that real living wage and have taken that step up from being an apprentice to now being a full-time employee. I'm also now helping to mentor the apprentices doing the very same apprenticeship that I completed.

Helping people in that way has really helped me, and that's why I'm here today. I want to share my experience with you because, when I was growing up, no one ever told me about the benefits of apprenticeships. That's really the reason I'm part of the Young Apprenticeship Ambassador Network, because we are former or current apprentices who want to get out there and talk to people in schools, colleges, and businesses about the benefits that apprenticeships have brought to us.

It's brought me some amazing experiences. I've been able to give speeches at the House of Commons. I've been part of a project group to develop an association for apprentices and bring apprentices together through a network that creates a sense of community and support.

I've also been part of the Big Assembly. You might have seen the Big Assembly in your school or college. I've been part of the actual panel and I've also been able to host the Big Assembly with an amazing, diverse group of apprentices.

More recently, I've been awarded East Midlands Apprentice Champion of the Year, and I was highly commended at the national awards in November 2019.

Like I said, I would never have had any of these amazing experiences and opportunities if I hadn't done my apprenticeship. If I'd just done my A-levels and gone to university, I wouldn't have experienced all of these opportunities.

These are some of the amazing opportunities that, just by doing an apprenticeship, I've been able to experience.

Going forward, a lot of you might not be sure what to do after your GCSEs or after your A-levels. My advice to you would be to explore all your options. Like me, you might be torn between different things after school and have different interests.

Don't be afraid to try new things. Just get out there into the world, try different things, and you'll soon realise what your strengths are and what you're going to enjoy doing as a job.

All the effort you put in, it's not going to be easy, but at the end of it, it's definitely going to be worth it.

Hopefully today I've been able to inspire a few of you who were considering an apprenticeship to take that step. For those of you who weren't sure about apprenticeships, maybe I've given you a bit of a nudge to get out there and see what's available.

You can go to the apprenticeships.gov.uk website to find out everything you need to know about an apprenticeship.

It was really good to talk to you today. I hope you've enjoyed it, and remember, in the near future you can help to fire up your career by doing an apprenticeship.

Hi my name's Tom Culley and I'm a networks degree apprentice. Today I'm here to talk to you about my journey as a young apprentice ambassador from when I was in school to where I am now a few of my top tips and some advice that I'd like to share.

So what are my current roles and responsibilities what do I do so. As a networks degree apprentice we have so many teams across the business and particularly I work in a team called core capacity integration which probably means absolutely nothing to you that's absolutely fine.

So as a networks degree apprentice I work in a team that's responsible for national critical infrastructure. So what that means is that we are working on services that impact kind of like the emergency services, 999 services, anything kind of critically important to the UK such as government services as well so we provide access to lots of different people including the 999 network. What we actually do day to day is we integrate new components so new circuits new routers and other equipment that keeps us all online across the country.

It's really kind of you know it's not making the teas and coffees it's not something where you put on a test network or anything from day one of your apprenticeship you're working on the real life network. On real life customers real life services, which is just a fantastic opportunity to have as an apprentice.

We spend time on the phone with engineers so the way this works is as you can see from the picture on the right that's usually what my screens look like on a day-to-day basis. An engineer will call in and we'll have a chat with them find out what they need us to help them with, and while they're making physical changes in our telephone exchanges all across the UK, we are behind the scenes making the changes on the equipment that they're touching physically, to bring those services um to our customers as quickly and as efficiently as possible and also testing that everything works well as well.

So as well as that I spend a lot of my time as a young apprentice ambassador going out to school sharing my story of which I'm also a co-chair in the London region as well or something I'm massively passionate about and something that I really really enjoy. So there are plenty of opportunities to get involved with opportunities outside of BT or outside of your company on an apprenticeship.

So the recruitment process I'll walk you through that and I guess a lot of you might be kind of completing recruitment processes, looking a little bit like I do on the right hand of the screen here. Especially in the kind of stage we are now but BT's application process is run entirely direct through our website, so you could you don't kind of apply for it through kind of like Indeed or Find an Apprenticeship website it's all done directly through our own website.

There are four parts, three of which are completely digital, and the last one where you would be invited to to come into our offices or at the moment they're being delivered virtually as well kind of on a Zoom call on a Teams call or something like that.

So that's an application form which is really kind of just to get to know you really get some basic information from your name your address your right to work in the UK, all the boring stuff that we've got to do. The second one is an online exam. Now this is kind of to work out what decisions you might make in the workplace so for example we might say to you if x happened in the workplace what would you do? A b c or d. So it's usually multiple choice. So it might be that your line manager's giving you an extra piece of work to do today how are you going to get it done are you what are you going to do you're just not going to do it, are you going to ask a colleague for help, are you going to work overtime to do it, or are you going to just tell your line manager no for example. And that helps us understand what kind of decisions you would make in the workplace and what kind of people we might want to recruit.

Following that is a video interview. It's a little bit different to kind of how you might have thought a video interview is it's not actually sat talking to someone, it's kind of an automated system where your question will come up on the screen and at that point you will um kind of answer it back to the camera. But at that time it's really important because we're going to see your passion we're going to see your enthusiasm we're going to be able to tell if you really want this so definitely come across passionate definitely come across as though um you know you've done your research as well because that's really important to understand what BT does or what whatever company you're applying for does.

And you know what's going to get you in the final stage an assessment centre which I have a few tips for as well. All assessment centres vary they usually have like a face-to-face interview and a group exercise, but every single one is different. My first tip would be work constructively with other candidates so it might be that there are 10 of you at an assessment centre and all of you could have the opportunity of getting a role if you meet the requirements. It's not often a case that there are 20 of you in a room and only one of you is going to get it. So work constructively with them because that's going to come in really useful during your group exercise to really have that good rapport with um with the other applicants. Being a leader doesn't always mean being the loudest um so you know you could be the one saying oh let's do this let's do that um but actually what we're looking for is people to say you know um x person what do you think? Bring people into the conversation so if somebody around in your team hasn't said much invite them to contribute say you know what do you think because you as a leader want to be able to hear the whole of your team's thoughts and get those inputs in.

Timekeeping is so key, and it's really easy just say as soon as your session starts or especially when you're working with others, just like okay guys I'll keep track of the time we've got 20 minutes I'll update you every three or four minutes for example. And that just keeps the team together it keeps you on track towards your goal and most importantly be you and be passionate. You know we're not recruiting somebody who you want to be, we're not trying to recruit somebody who you were, we are recruiting you now who you are, and why you want to be there or why you want that role. So be passionate, come across enthusiastic and just be yourself because that's ultimately who we're recruiting at the end of the day.

Why I think apprenticeships are great. So an apprenticeship is a job most importantly and often people kind of look past that is that you know you are going to have a full-time role. On an apprenticeship I work four days a week, that fifth day is spent doing university work. I'm contracted five days a week so I'm paid for five days a week um and I'm treated just the same as any other colleague. I'm given the same opportunities the same opportunities to kind of get involved with new things. So yeah it's just as much a job as anyone else thinks and don't think you're going to be making the teas and coffees, because my experience definitely hasn't been that way. For degree apprenticeships you could be in for getting a free degree like I say in my scenario, I'm going to have four years worth of work experience, four years worth of pay and no student debt, and a degree. So absolutely amazing for me. It's not for everyone but definitely consider it because it's a massive benefit you know it's nine thousand pound a year that you could be saving so um definitely consider that.

Valuable work experience. Like I say the degree the work experience and the pay is just absolutely amazing. You can kick start your professional career you can start networking professionally and sharing that experience because what I learned at university is very different to what I do day to day. And there's only a few kind of parts that really match up so you need to develop yourself in both areas that's what I'd say. Opportunity to impact real customers. I guess this one is a little bit more personal to me um I take great satisfaction in seeing the work that we do benefit our customers bring services to our customers especially during COVID-19 where most of us have been at home keeping in touch with our family over uh kind of FaceTime or Zoom or whatever that platform may be. And that's that's really important because you know we've needed that more than ever and being to be able to be part of that I think has has really been amazing for me. So yeah you're going to be impacting real customers and real people and also you get access to a lot of student benefits as well as receiving a salary. So the student benefits that are designed for those students who don't receive a full-time salary I'm afraid you're going to get both which is just brilliant Student Beans UniDays all of those kind of good things which save you a bit of money which is great.

So my advice to others and this is where I'm going to kind of bring my presentation to a close is keep your options open there are eight employers that you can see on screen now IBM just behind my head and um they are all companies that I applied for of apprenticeships um and you can't kind of apply for two and be unsuccessful for two and then give up you know I applied for eight I was unsuccessful in seven um but I got one in the end and that was the most important thing.

I also applied for university which is a fantastic opportunity as well. If you're really not sure about university or apprenticeships so definitely apply um and also keeping my options open even further. I ended up getting an offer at BT for the apprenticeship but I also got an offer to study at the University of Kent for computer science. And what I decided to do was rather than just ringing up the University of Kent when I decided I wanted to go to BT rather than just ringing them up and saying you know I'm not going to take the offer what I actually did instead was rang them up and said you know could I defer it from September 2018 which is when they'd offered me the start to September 2019 um and they said yes and what that allowed me to do was actually have something to fall back on so that if I didn't enjoy my BT apprenticeship I could still go to the University of Kent the next year which was just a fantastic opportunity to have so keep your options open you can make it work for you.

Never give up like I say eight applications I had to do there and seven were unsuccessful. If I'd have stopped after three or four I wouldn't be at BT today so definitely keep your options open. And in that essence resilience is key um take the feedback that other employers are giving you if they don't kind of give you anything straight away ask for it because that feedback is going to be really valuable to your resilience to come back and reapply for another organization or another scheme.

Develop your soft skills. So I always say to people you know get involved with things outside of school extracurricular activities whatever it may be because that's what makes you who you are um yes you can have A's and B's in maths and English and science or whatever it might be but that doesn't make up who you are um what you do outside of school. The volunteering that you do any extracurricular clubs sports whatever you do builds who you are and you will reference that during your application. You will be asked questions such as can you tell me a time when you're showing good resilience and for example being tackled during a football match getting up and pushing on is a key example of resilience. But often people don't link what seems like quite a typical thing that happens all the time being tackled at football club every week to a skill that makes you employable. So definitely recognise those and don't jump to conclusions about what some companies do. For example PwC is a financial firm um I still applied for a technology role because they have technology roles at BT we have business management roles, project management, product management, we have HR apprenticeships, we've got so many different apprenticeships in so many different spaces. So don't think that just by applying for BT you're going to be working on Wi-Fi and broadband because you're probably not. I think we probably recruit apprentices into more areas that don't work on Wi-Fi than do so definitely recognise other companies and find out what they do it might be a really interesting company or someone who you might want to work for.

Check out a page called Vacancy Snapshot it's one that I really recommend it's got a lot of the big brands that you would have heard of who recruit apprentices and it just makes you think oh actually I would quite like to work for I don't know Coca-Cola for example so definitely check out Vacancy Snapshot you can just Google Vacancy Snapshot and it's really really helpful. Ultimately, to close, be yourself and be passionate and you know nobody can be you and you are your own person. The employers will see you as your own person as well so just be yourself be honest and come across with that passion and enthusiasm and I'm sure you'll be absolutely fine so thank you for listening and all the best of luck with your journey.

Hello my name is Tatiana Peters and I am a mechanical design engineer at MBDA. I'll tell you a little bit about my current roles and responsibilities. I finished my apprenticeship scheme in September 2019 and since then I've been in a mechanical design role. Throughout the scheme I've had many different placements. This included customer support services, manufacture, industrial policy global supply chain and procurement. I also was able to work with the UK special advisor. After that I worked with the mechanical analysis team and then another mechanical design placement with the CAMM/CAMM ER team, a future mechanical future concepts placement, and then finally I finished in the Sea Venom team which I'm still on.

So just to tell you a little bit about the recruitment process at MBDA, the first thing you have to do is go on www.mbdacareers.co.uk and complete an online application form which will be reviewed by our HR team. Once you've done that and that the criteria has been met you may be asked to undertake an online test. The application will then be reviewed further by the department or discipline and if you are successful you are invited to an assessment day. If the criteria has been met at the assessment day then you will receive conditional offer of employment.

Why I think apprenticeships are great. You combine education and employment, gain invaluable experiences, develop new skills, networking, you gain a regular income and achieve many different qualifications along the way. You experience a range of different departments and still get your student discount and of course no student debt.

My advice to others. Make sure you look at all your options as there are lots of apprenticeship schemes out there for everyone. Use your assignment wisely, try and do some work experience and research. Don't just do what your friends are doing, do what's best for you and explore all the entry routes and take time to consider which works best for you. If you know what you want to study and you can do it through an apprenticeship then you should do it. Apprenticeships are for everyone, not just a specific type of person and it is only growing. So please make the most out of it and if you are thinking about an apprenticeship then just go for it.

Thank you very much.

Hello everybody my name is Francesca and I'm a level 3 business admin apprentice at Amazing Apprenticeships. At Amazing Apprenticeships we help to educate students, teachers, and employers about the ever-changing world of apprenticeships. We deliver national projects designed to perform and inspire English students. We work very closely with the National Apprenticeship Service, part of the Department for Education, to promote apprenticeships. We create and deliver resources from posters, films, to live broadcast to help educate people on apprenticeships.

So my current roles and responsibilities. So like I said I'm a business admin apprentice level 3 and my responsibilities at Amazing Apprenticeships is to mainly work on the admin side. So this is where I work and manage all the project databases and I get to write articles for our resources and I also get to work on big projects.

So my typical day is I start at half 8 every day and finish at 5 and in the mornings I will look at new articles to put into our newsletters because I manage our newsletters which go out to students, teachers, and employers about anything new in the sector. But my day-to-day responsibilities are never the same so one day it might be more data work so this is when I'll be working on our project database. When I work on this I'll be pulling reports from my database analysing all the data and then passing it onto my line manager or other days I might be working on national projects. So one I got to work on really recently is the International Women's Day project which was absolutely amazing to be a part of.

So a little bit about the recruitment process. So when I was in year 12 I went to universities like everybody else and when I was at the universities I thought what course will I do. At A levels I did PE, geography and biology and out of those three I wasn't too sure which one I wanted to study more in. But when I was at the universities I thought to myself okay if I pick one of these courses and I really don't like it that's 3 years of my life that I'm gonna have to stay doing the course. Then I thought I'm gonna be in all this debt what am I actually going to do after this whole university experience with my qualification. I then added them all up together and I thought actually university isn't for me so I started looking at one alternative which was apprenticeships.

So I started to research apprenticeships just to get a little bit more familiarised with them and I looked on the government website. So I put in my location what sector I'd really like to go into and a lot came up. So I think I picked out about 3 or 4 that I really loved the sound of however they weren't open to apply for. I thought what should I do I'm only year 12. I can't start next year in year 13 it's gonna have to be the year after so I couldn't apply. So I thought okay I would just plan my CV or personal statement get just a blank canvas of that that I could easily adapt for when I want to apply for the apprenticeship that I wanted.

However during year 13 Anna Morrison who is my director of Amazing Apprenticeships came into my school to get a little bit more of an insight of what students like myself felt about apprenticeships and what she can do to help schools promote apprenticeships a little bit more. So Anna was talking about all of this and then she spoke a little bit about her business and I absolutely loved the sound of her business. However I thought to myself I was a part-time lifeguard before I'd never done business I'd never work full-time. I thought this is I can't go for it. But I thought okay I'm only year 13 so I wouldn't have had a full-time job and okay I didn't pick business but I'm sure if I went and tried it I'd really like it.

So I emailed Anna and I just explained to her that I really love the sound of your business. However I haven't done business A level GCSE but is there any chance I could get work experience and Anna gave me the work experience and it was the best thing I've ever done. So I started straight after my A levels so I think I started about 2 weeks after them and had a 6 week period of working at Amazing Apprenticeships and I absolutely loved it. I really loved working the full time, I loved working in the business industry and it just gave me a real feel of what an apprenticeship would be like and I thought apprenticeships are definitely for me.

So why I think apprenticeships are amazing is that I've only started in September but since then I've had amazing opportunities. So I got to go to the BBC to interview some of their apprentices and they're amazing those apprentices because a lot of them have relocated to work in London and they're all my age and I thought how could you do that that you're going into the world of work you've left home and I just found them absolutely mesmerizing of how proud they all are of their apprenticeship.

And I also got to go to the House of Commons. This was really cool I've never been there before and but I got to, we held a big teacher event so I got to experience how teachers feel about apprenticeships and what still needs to be done in schools and I also got to go to national events. So I went to the New Scientists Live at the Excel London where I got to see other students get to tell my story get to help them and I also got to spend 3 days in Birmingham at World Skills Live which was very cool indeed and you get to see all apprentices competing in their sectors, some that I never knew existed. So it's absolutely amazing to go and visit there.

My greatest achievement is being given the responsibility of creating the national projects for International Women's Day. This was such a cool project to work on. So we created an A to Z pack of cards and a case study of all female apprentices in the apprenticeship sector. So for example Zed was a zookeeper apprenticeship and I never knew they existed but it was so cool. For one I got to link all the apprentices together, I made really good connections with them but also I got to see how they got into their apprenticeship and the process they went into. So it's really cool to work on.

But my proudest moment has to be not following everybody else off to university. So I was deputy head girl in sixth form and for me to not go to university was a little bit different. However I'm so pleased I didn't follow everybody else going off to university because the experiences I've had during my apprenticeship I would never have got the experience if I went off to university and I know for a fact that doing the apprenticeship for me is the best thing that I could have ever done.

And so my advice to others is get the work experience. I never knew I would like business until I tried the work experience and also I didn't know if I was going to like an apprenticeship. I didn't know what an apprenticeship really was so having that work experience gave me the insight into what apprenticeships are, into the world of work and into the world of business which I really didn't think I'd like but I can honestly say that work experience just gave me like the key to my apprenticeship journey and I would never look back on it.

And my other advice is everybody has a gift to bring to an apprenticeship no matter what your grades are and what subjects you do. If you find the right one for you, you will give a gift to that company and they will be very thankful for you.

So here's just me and that's me at the House of Commons and me at World Skills Birmingham.

So thank you so much for listening and I hope you all find your apprenticeship journey.

Thank you.

Hi everyone my name is Molly Gray and I work for a company called Accenture. I'm a software engineer and a degree apprentice and I'm also a Young Apprentice Ambassador which I might shorten to YAN throughout this presentation.

So I'll be speaking today for around 10 minutes maybe a little bit more because I tend to ramble about all things apprentice. So hopefully you enjoy this presentation.

To be a bit more specific about what I'll be speaking about today. So I'm going to be introducing myself as well as what I did before Accenture, what I'm doing now, then share what Accenture is. So for those of you who haven't heard of it then I'll be explaining a little bit more about that and I'll be explaining Accenture's apprenticeship scheme and what we look for in apprentices as well as the apprentice life and the participants which aren't necessarily specific to Accenture but all apprenticeships.

Okay so I've set out my little YAN profile here. So as you can see I've been an apprentice for three years now. I've been in my current role within the company for two years and I've been a Young Apprentice Ambassador for two years as well. So the first thing, I went to Walker Riverside Academy, formerly known as Walker Technology College when I actually attended there. So I did my GCSEs there, just my standard high school, and I also did one year of A levels there which I failed. Well, I say failed, I didn't fail but I didn't do it nearly as well as I wanted to and I realized that the subjects that I had chosen weren't for me at all and weren't what I needed to be studying for my future.

So I decided to go to Newcastle College. So I had lots of part-time jobs around my education and then I went to Newcastle College and I did a full-time IT qualification because I hadn't had the chance to do IT at Walker as a GCSE or A level. So I did a full-time level three at Newcastle College as well as my part-time work which was such a struggle because I was doing full-time work around full-time education as well.

So I didn't want to go to uni so I needed to explore my other options. So that's when I applied for Accenture and I literally got the position. It was a very competitive position with it being a degree apprenticeship and so I'm very fortunate that I got this opportunity.

As well I am now with Accenture's Young Apprentice Ambassador programme which means I get the chance to do videos and events like this. Usually I would be out in person at schools but given the current times I am recording this video for everyone to hopefully enjoy.

I don't want to ramble on about this too much because everyone within Accenture has a different role and different responsibilities. For example different clients have different challenges and different demands. So for the client I work for, I work within email security which is kind of a cyber security element as well as incident management and a lot of monitoring and a lot of analysing which might sound boring but I really enjoy my job.

And I've also included some of the side of desk things I'm involved with. So I'm an ally of mental health, I'm an ally of LGBT, I'm an ally of equality and I also get involved with different things such as the apprentice news at Accenture.

What is Accenture? You might think you're speaking about this but I'm not really sure what Accenture as a company do, so I'm going to try and explain it as best as I can.

So Accenture are the world's leading digital and technology solutions company. We employ 500,000 people worldwide, maybe more, and 16,000 of those are based in the UK. So we've got various different technology centres within the UK, one of them being in Newcastle who Accenture work with.

Usually in person I'd do a hands-on exercise of how many people have heard of Accenture and no hands would go up, and then I'd say who has heard of any of these companies which probably would be every hand in the room. So these are some of the clients that Accenture work with. It's only a small handful and as you can see some of these are the largest companies and best well-known companies in the world.

And you would maybe get a chance to work with some of these clients when working with Accenture. So for example the client I work for is on the screen right now. I'm not allowed to say which one but they're there and you could have the chance to work for multiple of these companies or only one of these companies if you try and get a more permanent role, or you could do more short-term projects and do a short-term project for Facebook, a short-term project for HMRC and move around the clients a lot more, which some people tend to do. But I have more of a permanent role so I've been with only two different clients and the client I'm with now currently I will probably work for a lot longer as well.

A little bit more information about Accenture. Did you know our systems process half of the world's posted packages? So whenever you would post a return or a parcel at Royal Mail we're involved in the technology behind that. We'll also help protect more than a quarter of the planet's internet traffic which is what I'm involved with, with email security. And our technology is used to send out one in every five telephone bills. You might not like receiving the bills but our technology is behind that.

So in short really you can't go a day without touching something that Accenture has been involved with and now working for the company I'm a lot more aware of that and it just seems to follow me wherever I go. But for being a relatively unknown company, we're involved with a lot of huge things.

So where is Accenture? We are located in Cobalt Business Park which is close to Silverlink if you know where Silverlink Shopping Park is. Then globally we are based in 56 different countries, we'll have offices in 200 different cities and we'll have clients in 120 cities. So very worldwide and you might get the opportunity to travel with some of the clients that you work for or maybe do some overseas projects which would be great. Obviously maybe not at the minute with COVID but Accenture do encourage travel where appropriate and where doable.

These are the key points of the Accenture apprenticeship. I'm covering one of them so I'll just read that out. A fantastic opportunity ahead with lots of support. You do get a lot of support from the team that you'll be working within but you'll get support from other apprentices as well. It's a really good apprentice community. I'll not read the rest of them out but as you can see there's a lot of benefits to Accenture and a lot of other schemes have similar benefits too.

The first part of pretty much any recruitment process is a CV submission. So what I would say is try and make your CV stand out. Not necessarily submitted in bright pink but definitely have something on there that makes you stand out in a big pile of CVs.

So for example when I applied for it, since I was a qualified door supervisor, maybe a young girl being a qualified doorman would obviously stand out. And just a little bit of background on that, it's because I wanted to work at festivals and it was one of the requirements. To be able to work at festivals you had to be qualified to search someone which meant being a qualified door supervisor.

Other than that I included my social media links as well as the little logos, like the little Facebook logo and the little Twitter logo, which is a little pop of colour and might be eye-catching. Also because companies tend to do social media screening, so I thought including my links on here shows that I have nothing to hide, that I'm happy to have my social media browsed. There's nothing inappropriate on there and I come across professional online.

So the second one is a video interview and this can be quite daunting. It is awkward to watch yourself back but what's the worst that can happen? I just think you have to do it, you have to get on with it and you have to come across as best as you can, so just try your best.

For me I didn't watch myself back because I found it too awkward but if that is something that you would benefit from doing definitely do that. Before Accenture I actually had done some more recruitment processes. They weren't necessarily the perfect position for me but I thought at least the recruitment process is giving me experience in interviews and I can learn from the mistakes I've made with other companies when it comes to doing Accenture's which was the position I ultimately wanted.

So the next one would be the assessment centre. First impressions count. Definitely make sure you look presentable. You'd want to be working in a professional office so dress appropriately, dress for the job almost.

Another thing, I tend to twiddle with my hair when I'm nervous, especially if it's down. I would pull on my hair so I wore my hair up to avoid that so I didn't come across unprofessional to whoever was interviewing me. I wore pretty minimal makeup, quite natural, just to come across as professional.

So the first activity within the assessment is a group activity and you can't really prepare that much for this. I think the case is that the observer wants to see how you would work in a team, so try and be as talkative as you can without talking over people.

For me I'm quite a talkative person anyway and because I had a lot of previous work experience I think I was one of the most confident in my group activity. So I noticed that other people weren't getting the chance to speak as much, so I was actually inviting them to speak by saying like "Oh Sarah do you agree with that? What are your thoughts on it?" and I think that made me stand out as more of a leader within the group. Not that I was just trying to stand out and be arrogant but I was trying to work the best as a team as I could. So that's the key thing to remember there.

The next one is a Q&A with current apprentices. Try and have some questions prepared for them because that's what they're there for and they do love answering any questions and talking about their experience.

The next one is a presentation. So that might sound quite daunting but it's a five-minute presentation in front of one member of staff, so it's not as daunting as it sounds. But try not to over prepare for it because I think there's nothing worse than listening to someone who you think is definitely just reeling off from memory. Try and make it quite natural. Not winging it as such, prepare a little bit, but make sure that you come across very friendly and approachable because no one wants to work with a robot. You're all going to be working with people at the end of the day. They want to see what you're like as a person.

So for example I used Bitmoji in my presentation just to try to stand out and make my presentation memorable. It was like a little cartoon me throughout the slides and I'd give them printouts of the slides to keep for memory as well.

Another one is your one-on-one interview and again I would say don't prepare too much for this because you'll probably prepare for the wrong questions anyway. You don't know what's going to be asked. Obviously there are a few standard questions in there but definitely have examples to back you up.

If you think the interviewer has asked a question where you're caught off guard, there's absolutely nothing wrong with saying "Can I just have a minute to think about that actually, just to make sure I'm giving you my best example?" That's completely fine. No one can answer everything on the spot so if you feel like you need a minute to think about it definitely just say that.

Also definitely prepare a weakness. That is getting used more and more nowadays in interviews, like "What's your biggest weakness?" It's not a problem to have a weakness, everyone has weaknesses. Don't say that you're a perfectionist because it's just not believable.

I think if you're going to struggle with identifying your weaknesses, go and do a personality test or do a strengths test. That'll outline that for you and then you can actually say "Oh that is a bit of a weakness" and go away and work on that. So when you're then asked about your biggest weakness you can say "Well actually it's X but I'm doing Y instead to work on it and improve it" which speaks volumes about you and who you are as a person and your work ethic.

Lastly there's an individual assessment which I actually didn't have to do when I joined the company but it has been introduced since. From what I've heard from other apprentices, you do get a lot of time to prepare for this and you do normally go in quite confident with this, so not too much to worry about by the sounds of it.

So what employers look for. It's important to remember when you enter into an apprenticeship they don't expect you to be able to do the job before you get there. That's why you'd want to be an apprentice and learn on the job.

These are some of the qualities that some of the managers look for. So I asked some of the managers that do the interviewing "What do you look for?" and these were kind of the buzzwords that came up. So if you can demonstrate three or four or five of these then you're on a winner. Definitely get this across and if you get this across in every part of your application you've got a really good chance.

So the purpose of being an apprentice. The top left picture is trying to represent everyone that you've met along the way. I've met loads of people within the company and I know a lot of senior managers and all of our apprentices and all these people that I can work with. It's great to have a professional network so definitely try and get as many contacts as you can along the way.

You get to work, you get the training and you get to have skills as well and you're already on the road to success. That picture at the top middle, you can do an apprenticeship in enough anything nowadays. I've met an apprentice firefighter. I didn't even realize that was an opportunity that was available but it was great to see that you can kind of go down any route with an apprenticeship.

You're earning, which is that little piggy bank there, and your UNiDAYS and Student Beans is like your student discount which is always a bonus when you're ordering your PrettyLittleThing outfit for Saturday night, all your ASOS trainers or whatever. It is nice to get that 20% off.

So my highlight so far. I've got Girls in STEM there. So I was involved with the Girls in STEM event at St James' Park where a lot of girls came and did different workshops and I was able to help and assist and host workshops with those girls which was great.

We'll have Domino's and Fat Hippo pretty much all the time at work and it's normally free. Whenever we're celebrating a big win or a big achievement within the company we usually get the Fat Hippo in or something similar which is always a good day. On my project specifically we'll have Pizza Thursdays at the end of every month when we're in the office. We're not in the office at the minute obviously but when we are we'll have Pizza Thursdays which everyone looks forward to.

I've been able to travel a lot. Not with the company but because of the earning I've been able to go on a lot of my bucket list holidays already which is amazing.

I started with a big apprenticeship group. As you can see, that middle image there, the 30 of us started together and we ranged from ages 16 to 30 which was amazing to see.

Also the parties as you can see on the right there. Some of the social events get a little bit wild and I've also been nominated throughout my apprenticeship for different things such as Apprentice of the Year. In my first year I actually got nominated for Apprentice of the Year but I didn't place. For the most recent year I placed third place which was a great achievement and something I'm very proud of.

To finish up I would normally ask anyone if they had any questions and these are some of the most common ones, but I'm not going to answer them now.

If you did have any questions please do feel free to contact the email address that should be available here, the YAN email address, and any questions for me can be forwarded on and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

So hopefully you enjoyed this and I hope I didn't ramble too much.

Thank you.