The Adult Apprentice Friday, November 30, 2012 - 11:46

The experiences, views and opinions of ten adult apprentices are featured in a new publication from NIACE – The Adult Apprentice - published on Friday 30 November 2012.

The Adult Apprentice is the result of in-depth interviews with ten apprentices, all of whom were nominated for the Apprentice of the Year Award as part of Adult Learners’ Week earlier this year. NIACE believes that the most powerful advocates for effective learning and support in an apprenticeship are the apprentices themselves.

Some of the apprentices featured in the publication include:

Tom just completed a two-year advanced apprenticeship in biotechnology with Bolton Centre for Sexual and Reproductive Health. He said, “I thought I was too old to be honest. I was 23 when I started. I normally associate them with younger people. I used to go in after work a couple of nights a week [on a voluntary basis] just to see what the work was all about. I knew it was going to be a big step. I was just making sure I enjoyed it and wanted to do it. I did this for a month before applying for the apprenticeship.”

Wendy had worked in the pharmacy at Huddersfield Hospital Trust for more than 12 years before she enrolled on an Intermediate Apprenticeship in Pharmacy. She said, “I can do my job better as I have more confidence so that I can stand up in front of team meetings and I can express what I want to say in the right way and get my meaning across in a way that doesn’t intimidate anyone. People will understand me without having a go. I answer the phone nicely. If it’s a complaint, I know when to smile and nod.”

Kerrie’s original plan had been to join the RAF, but after failing the medical she felt under pressure to find an alternative quickly. She followed in her dad’s footsteps and looked for an apprenticeship as an electrician. She said, “The public services course [that I did] for three years was male-orientated...and I was one of about four girls on that course among hundreds of guys, so in a way I’d already learnt to deal with the comments, jibes, men’s humour...I was a little bit nervous because these weren’t just teenagers like I was at college…these were men…I just thought if I’m going to do it, I’m going to do it as good as them or try and do it better.”

Amanda works for McDonald’s. Her previous jobs included cleaning, working behind a bar and telesales. After a couple of years, Amanda was asked by McDonald’s if she would be interested in undertaking an apprenticeship. She said, “The job I’ve got at the moment, I absolutely love it. I enjoy going to work and doing my job. It’s the first time I’ve ever found a job where I’ve not actually minded getting up to go to work. Now I can’t wait. I look forward to it. Someone did ask me if I would like to go for another job, but I said, ‘Not really, I’m happy where I am’.”

Peter was working in a temporary role at Greater Manchester Council when he successfully applied for a Level 3 Advanced Apprenticeship in ICT with Weaver Vale Housing Trust. He said, “Since I left high school I wanted to work in IT. I felt after a year in college that I was ready to crack on with it, but things didn’t work out for whatever reason. The apprenticeship was a great opportunity to gain some experience of actually working in the industry and to get to know some of the more commonly used systems. A large part of what attracted me to the post was that the Trust has such a great reputation in the local area and I knew that if I worked there I would enjoy it.”

Melanie went on an apprenticeship after completing a Media Studies degree. She said, “After I’d left university, because of the recession and due to the subject of my degree, there weren’t any jobs available. Because I’d covered some HR and communication in my degree, I saw the apprenticeship that had been advertised within business administration and personnel and I applied for that. I thought I might be overqualified. I didn’t really know anything about them [apprenticeships]. I thought it would be for school leavers, if you didn’t want to go to college. I didn’t really know anything about it. When you were at college, you were steered to go to university.”

David Hughes, Chief Executive of NIACE, said:

“Amongst all of the attention which has rightly been paid to apprenticeships recently, too little has been focused on the voice of apprentices themselves. It is right that there should be a very strong input from employers into the apprenticeship programme and it is of course right that the return on investment to the government needs to be understood. I am also content that there has been suitable rigour in ensuring higher success rates and improved quality; but in all of this there has been a lack of space for the apprentices themselves as equal partners in the programme and in the debate.”

“This publication starts to put that right. It provides a platform for ten adult apprentices to set out the benefits they perceive from their experiences and the areas of the apprenticeship programme they would like to see developed. NIACE has listened carefully to these ten - and to other apprentices - in order to set out the policy and practice issues. Perhaps unsurprisingly, one of our issues is the need for employers and policy-makers to listen more to apprentices when they are designing and developing the apprenticeship programme. We believe that apprentices have useful insights which can help develop the curriculum, delivery approaches, quality measures and outcomes for employers and future apprentices.”