Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
CALLING ALL APPRENTICES
KEEN to do an apprenticeship but lacking confidence and experience, school leaver Devina Sivaprasad enrolled on a specialist training course to give herself a head start.
After just six weeks with Apprentice Nation, Devina, 18, from Oxford, bagged herself a coveted apprenticeship with Openreach as an apprentice customer services adviser.
What are you doing?
I started the job in December and have since then been on two rotations around the business. These have included working with service providers such as Sky and BT escalating their orders or queries, and also helping customers get booked in for support. I’m on the phone a lot talking to clients, which I surprisingly love.
On my first day I was extremely nervous about the phone element, but after a few hours I realised it wasn’t too bad.
This time next year I will finish the apprenticeship and have NVQ qualifications to help me move forwards. I have money to save for holidays, I have made new friends, and I feel like I am going places.
How have you changed?
I’ve always been quite a shy and introverted person but doing this has really built my confidence. I’ve become so used to speaking to new colleagues and other people online or on the phone that I’m much freer with my conversation and more able to reach out to others for help or advice.
I would never have imagined such a change in myself in such a short time.
Did you consider going to university at all?
I didn’t take my A-level exams last summer due to Covid; it was a difficult time. Even before that all of my school friends started applying for university but I was still really unsure about what I wanted to do.
My dad mentioned that apprenticeships were a good option – he wished he’d done one when he was my age – but my teachers and friends were trying to persuade me to go to uni.
In the end, I decided that an apprenticeship would give me the best of both worlds – I could learn and build my skills at the same time as getting paid to work.
I didn’t get as much support from school as the rest of my year group and it was quite a challenge, taking a different path to my peers, but I just tried my best to focus on what I wanted to do.
How did you get your apprenticeship?
In my online searching I stumbled across Apprentice Nation and I signed up. The aim is to boost confidence, and help you get ready for writing CVS and job interviews.
There were sessions featuring music artists and live webinars – people like me were asking the same questions I had about apprenticeships in a really sociable environment.
I worked hard and even earned a mentor session with Pete Jeavons, Director of Marketing and Communications at BT. Hearing his story, all about his career journey, inspired me to work hard, whatever stage I’m at, because that will help me to keep progressing and get to where I want to be.
It just so happened there were vacancies for apprentices at BT at the time and I applied.
I felt I knew what I was doing and had the skills to talk about myself (which I have to confess is hard with online interviews) and I got the job.
How do you see your future panning out?
All the skills I am learning now are really transferable and one day I hope to be able to go more down the line of media and marketing.
What advice do you have for others?
Don’t be forced down a path you do not want to go. Take a long look at all the options in front of you and make the right decision for you – even if it goes against the norm.
■ Openreach is creating more than 5,000 engineer jobs throughout this year. Check out openreach.com to find out more.