An apprentice – at 67
Bob proof you’re never too old…
APPRENTICESHIPS are for school leavers hoping to learn a trade – right?
Wrong. They are for anyone at any age, as 67-year-old Bob Pemberton from Sheffield will tell you.
After being made redundant from his job with former education trade union Aspect, he is busy finishing an apprenticeship with insurers Aviva, helping to protect pension savers from sharks. Sounds like you’re a bit of sleuth?
You could say that. When clients say they want to move their pension money to a new company or scheme it is up to me as an apprentice team leader in Customer Protection and Development is to check that the chosen company is reputable.
Many of them are – but there are also some serious scams out there. Using my knowledge (I have got to know many of the good guys from the bad guys in the three years since I started this job), internet searches and the phone, I can work out who is legitimate.
There’s a real sense of achievement when I know I am really helping people invest their pensions safely.
The statistics are quite frightening especially with the number of people who think they could spot a scammer easily. The fraudsters can be very clever. How come you didn’t just retire at 65?
I had a few months off following redundancy in 2015, but there is only so much gardening or DIY you can do before you get bored. I felt fit and full of energy, and my wife, who has worked in education, was 62 and fell into the bracket of
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Bob Pemberton
people who couldn’t retire when she had planned to. It made sense financially to keep working.
Did you struggle to find work?
Not at all. To start with I got a temp admin type job with recruitment and employment agency Adecco and ended up at Aviva. I had a lot of skills after working in and around trade unions. After a short while I was taken on full time.
How did you end up on an apprenticeship?
Shortly after I started work Aviva launched an NVQ initiative with the union Unite which offered many of us the chance to get qualifications and extra training.
Even though by then I was 65, I signed up. It was great – learning and getting new ideas. After completing both NVQ levels 2 and 3, I was given the chance to start an apprenticeship to be a team leader. It seemed the logical next
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step and a further way to challenge what I do and how I do it. I am loving exploring the first stages of management. Why bother to keep learning?
If you’re not learning then you’re vegetating and I’m not ready for that. KEEP LEARNING Apprentices over 45 now account for at least 13% of all apprenticeships, 4,000 over-60s started one in the past year.
Companies large and small, such as Barclays (joinus.barclays.com/emea/ apprenticeships), B&Q (bandqcareers. com) and M&S (careers.marksandspencer.com) see the merits of taking on older experienced employees.
As Bob has discovered, Aviva (aviva. com/careers) is actively encouraging older staff to continue training and learning. “This is not about asking people to ‘work until they drop’,” says Alistair McQueen, head of savings & retirement at Aviva. “This is about
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giving all people the opportunity to contribute, regardless of age.”
Businesses of all sizes need an army of support staff like Bob. From receptionists, administrative assistants and clerks to personal assistants and business administrators there are six million people in this sector –- and we have found 18,663 vacancies.
At fish4jobs.co.uk there are 1,369 admin, secretarial and PA jobs – from a full-time administrator and credit controller in Leicester (£12,500£18,500), an admin assistant in Redruth, Cornwall (£16,638), to a customer service administrator in London (£19,125) and a services officer in Warwick (£24,657-£27,358).
We found 4,645 jobs at gov.uk/ jobsearch including 493 office admin jobs, 455 receptionists and 1,346 general office assistants, such as a receptionist in Maidstone (£8.40 an hour) and a customer service account manager in York (£9.89). At secsinthecity.co.uk – specialists for PAs, executive assistants, secretaries and administrators – there are 2,143 jobs ranging from a personal assistant in London (£40,000-£45,000) to a receptionist for an accountancy firm in London (£22,000-£24,000).
At hays.co.uk we spotted a further 1,950 administration and office support jobs – brookstreet.co.uk has 1,872 jobs while adecco.co.uk has 356 office and secretarial jobs. Check out the NHS at jobs.nhs.uk. there are around 2,700 administrative and clerical jobs listed such as a unit administrative lead in Bristol (£17,787-£20,448).
Find apprenticeships at getingofar. gov.uk. There were 3,631 roles in business, administration and law when we checked. The minimum wage for apprentices in the first year is £3.70 an hour (rising to £3.90 from April). For apprentices 19 or over it is £7.83 (rising to £8.21) from the second year onwards.
If you’re not learning then you are vegetating
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