The happy-prentice
Next week could change your life
IF you want to launch a career or retrain for a new one, an apprenticeship could be one of the best ways to start. Choose the right one and your future is set.
National Apprenticeship Week starts on Monday and the spotlight will be firmly on earn-and-learn opportunities.
Bosses, schools and colleges will be promoting the benefits of mixing on-thejob training and gaining qualifications. We’ve tracked down 33,309 apprenticeships available across the country.
What’s on offer
There are 1,500 different job roles across 170 industries. The best place to find out what’s available is the National Apprenticeship Service website at apprenticeships.gov.uk (or call 0800 015 0400) where we found 15,182 vacancies. Sectors with the most opportunities are retail, business, administration and law.
Also try Not Going to Uni (notgoingtouni.co.uk) which has 3,733 apprenticeships including IT, accounting, business, childcare and sales.
The Armed Forces are the biggest recruiters with the Royal Navy (royalnavy.mod.uk/careers) expected to take on 2,000 this year, the Air Force (raf. mod.uk/recruitment/roles) 1,500 across 23 roles and the Army (apply. army.mod.uk/what-we-offer/regularsoldier/skills) around 8,000.
The civil service is expected to have 900 apprenticeships on offer within the Ministry of Defence (gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-ofdefence/about/recruitment) – with jobs from engineering to administration. To apply for fast track civil service apprenticeships, visit faststream.gov.uk. Accountancy and business experts BDO (bdoearlyincareer.co.uk) is looking for 150 apprentices while brewer Greene King (jobs.greeneking.co.uk) has 195 vacancies and Halfords (halfords.co.uk) is looking for 100. BAE Systems (baesystems.com/en-uk/ careers/careers-in-the-uk/ apprenticeships) is taking on at least 700 new apprentices this year at all levels right across the company.
Network Rail (networkrail.co.uk/ careers) has 220 opportunities, while the NHS (jobs.nhs.uk) is recruiting 129 apprentices. Barclays (joinus.barclays/ eme/apprenticeships) wants 500 apprentices of all ages.
The facts
Apprentices get at least the minimum wage – £3.70 per hour for 16 to 18 year olds and those aged 19-plus in the first year of their apprenticeship, but most Owen’s now a rail boss employers pay more than this. Apprenticeships are available to all ages making them a great option for anyone looking to change career, improve skills, or re-enter the labour market.
The apprentice
If you need proof apprenticeships work then Owen Flanders, 31, from Eye in Suffolk is the man to ask. Starting out with Network Rail at 17, he is now senior renewals and enhancements engineer – responsible for signalling and control systems out of Liverpool Street and across Anglia. He looks after multimillion-pound budgets.
Owen explains: “I think engineering has always been in my blood. My dad was an electrical engineer, one of my grandads helped build the Mersey Tunnel and the other was an able seaman during the Second World War.
“At school, I was good at maths and liked physics. I would always watch my dad fix household items and, as I got older, I started to take things apart and put them back together. I wanted to see if I could make something different, whether that was Lego or fixing a whole computer when I was just 13.
“Then an engineer came into my school to give a talk. The more he described working on amazing projects that involved building bridges, and explained how engineers help make the railway run, the more interested I got.
“So I decided to leave college after the first year of A-levels and applied for several apprenticeships, choosing the Network Rail program.
“I knew as soon as I’d had the first lesson I’d made the right choice. Being around so many technically minded people made me feel right at home.
“The lecturers were inspiring and offered guidance on jobs in engineering that would suit our skills as well as the other things that interested us.
“After graduating from the three-year apprenticeship, I ‘worked the tools’ as a technician doing shifts fixing signals.
“I loved it. After working my way up to become a manager over the next few years, I realised that I had a thirst to learn more. So, in 2009, I joined the Open University and spent three years studying for a degree in engineering, while working full time. I knew it would help me in my career.
“The revision and studying skills I’d learned on my apprenticeship helped me knuckle down. But it wasn’t until I studied for my masters in Railway Systems Engineering & Integration that I realised what ‘tough’ really meant.
“Working long days and then coming home to study and help my partner look after our new-born daughter was tiring but so worth it.”
■ Visit gov.uk/government/topicalevents/national-apprenticeshipweek-2019 to find out what’s in your area.
I knew I’d made right choice after first lesson