Apprenticeship – how I have found it.

Apprenticeship – how I have found it.

When I started looking into apprenticeships I already had an idea of what I wanted the subject to be (business services/customer services). I had a few ideas on where to look for my apprenticeship was my city council.

I signed up to two different places one was Henley collage and the other was Coventry Council who help find apprentices for people and to help people apply. For both I have to do a maths and English exam and to do a general exam to see if I qualify for a business services apprenticeship.

I did find one which was with the Council with a business services once I had filled out the application and had the interview I got offered the job it did all happened very quick which worked out well for me as I had just left my job before hand. They had picked the grade that I would be working out to which was a grade two. When I first started I had to wait over a month to officially start my apprenticeship as the provider the Council uses was quite slow with getting the ball rolling but in the end it worked out quite well as I was able to start the job and learn quite a lot without having to also do my apprenticeship papers.

When Heart of England did finally started to work on my paperwork me and my manager had to pick out quite a few different units for me to work to and complete but also during this I would also have to do a Maths, English and ICT exam I had to do English and ICT level 2 and Maths was a level 1. When I started nobody told me that my maths and ICT qualification had to be a level 2 and English had to be a level 3 so when I was finally told which was about half through my apprenticeship that I would have to pass my maths and English exams to pass my whole apprenticeship I was a bit annoyed as I was not told this to begin with and had that to worry about as maths is not my strong suit but I was able to pass both and pass with a grade 2. 

This course was for one year and at the end of the apprenticeship I could apply for a job within customer services which would mean I could move to another team or I could stay within the team I was with already if I got the job. However because of how my apprenticeship started and because I got the job I still had one month as an apprentice while also have the full time job as a senior administrator while not a problem was a bit annoying because it was not meant to happen which I did find out that is how they work they did really like to do a lot or give you the information near the end when you really needed to know at the start.

I think one of the hardest things to deal with is the money seeing as you don't get a kit on the apprenticeship wage. I was however lucky that my husband supported and helped me when I needed it. When my apprenticeship was coming to an end I could of gone and done a level 3 which would of been better but at the time I just wanted to finish and move forward with my job and I knew I could always come back and look at doing it another time. 

One thing i have enjoyed while doing my Apprenticeship was learning all about the job while getting my qualification and not just sitting in a class room and learning that way, learning on the job make it feel more yours its your work your completing for the customer and it makes you feel good to know you are doing it right. While everybody makes mistakes on the job as long as you learn from them and understand where you went wrong then nobody can fault you for that.

While this was a fun and a new experience for myself I am glad it is over for now there was a lot stressful not really with the apprenticeship itself just the provider and some of the staff I worked with didn't really understand that sometimes while at work I did also have to work on my apprenticeship and not just the jobs they gave me and even to the end they still didn't like it which did make it harder for myself and made me really not want to stay with that team and that is what happened after 3 months of being there full time I got a really good opportunity to work with another company with better pay and close to home and already I can tell how much better I feel in myself.