The 2023 National Apprenticeship Week is the 6th – 12th February and the theme this year is ‘Skills for Life’. This week is to help reflect on the impact of developing the skills and experience for an apprentice and their future career, and how consequently this is rewarding to an organisation and employer.
At Red Tiger I am a Research and Marketing apprentice while currently working towards achieving my Level 3 Business Administration qualification. The qualification, which takes approximately 12 months to complete, involves a variety of projects which combine learning about business administration alongside my responsibilities in my role as a research and marketing apprentice.
My Path to an Apprenticeship
Initially I started at a sixth form where I took 3 a-levels: Business Studies, Religious Studies, and Psychology. It was a big jump from doing GCSE’S, especially through the GCSE pandemic years in which learning was predominantly held over teams calls. I quickly realised that the traditional structured learning in a classroom wasn’t my preferred option.
I started looking into apprenticeships and applied in my preferred subject, business, but I realised how competitive it was to get a position as an apprentice. I then completed a 6-week traineeship where I was able to develop work experience skills in business administration and customer service and I additionally received an extra level 1 qualification. From here I had the extra experience and interview skills to secure my position with Red Tiger in my desired apprenticeship and role.
An apprenticeship is structured into 80% on the job working and 20% off the job learning. Examples of my off the job projects include learning about how an organisation operates, rules and regulations in business and how my practical learning incorporates into the theory of my business administration qualification. Doing an apprenticeship has helped put many skills into practice which has helped further my understanding in a vast variety of ways. I enjoy this learning method as I am able to put everything I learn from my studies and project coursework in to practice and I can understand the value and importance of the theory work in the workplace.
Post-Apprenticeship Opportunities
When I first started researching about apprenticeships, I was intrigued but also unsure about my future career options. There is often conflicting information across the internet and I found I wasn’t offered much education within my school as there is often a major pressure to follow the A-levels then university route. This means that many young people are not aware or underestimate the options of apprenticeships and the opportunities they can lead to.
Examples of opportunities following on from an apprenticeship qualification include further level apprenticeship qualifications (the highest level is 7 which is the equivalent to an accredited degree), full time working positions either within the company you complete your apprenticeship with or progressing to a different company, and higher-level education, such as university. Currently I am over halfway through completing my qualification and I am beginning to look forwards to my next steps post-apprenticeship. As I enjoy the structure of working full time, I hope to continue with this and in the future possibly explore the option of further level apprenticeships to further my qualifications.
Overall, I am glad I chose to do an apprenticeship as I have had many incredible opportunities to learn and develop through the help of everyone at Red Tiger and my apprenticeship provider. If anyone may be considering their next steps in their education path, I would highly recommend an apprenticeship as it is a very beneficial option to gain not only a qualification, but also vital experience in your chosen profession which many employers value just as highly.
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