An apprentice engineer works on an aircraft interior in an aerospace engineering factory. Photograph: Monty Rakusen/Getty Images View image in fullscreen An apprentice engineer works on an aircraft interior in an aerospace engineering factory. Photograph: Monty Rakusen/Getty Images Apprenticeships ‘A huge learning curve’: apprentices on the benefits and pitfalls of vocational training While many young people have found jobs and built careers, some have struggled to complete their courses
Prefer the Guardian on Google T he crisis in the youth employment market, with almost a million young people not in education, employment or training (Neet) across the UK, has placed fresh emphasis on ways of getting employees into the workforce.
The government hopes to increase focus on technical and vocational learning in England from the age of 14. In parallel, there is an ambition to create thousands more apprenticeships.
The work and pensions secretary, Pat McFadden, has also announced a new bursary aimed at ensuring families will not be left financially worse off if their teenager starts an apprenticeship.
Research from the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) found that black and mixed-ethnicity learners from poorer backgrounds and those for whom English is an additional language are less likely to complete their apprenticeships.
The Guardian asked people to share their experiences of apprenticeships.
View image in fullscreen The government hopes to increase the focus on technical and vocational learning from the age of 14 in England. Photograph: Johnny Greig/Getty Images ‘I am progressing faster than colleagues with degrees’ Ellen*, 24, from Worcester, decided an apprenticeship would work better for her than university, although it was “never suggested” as an option at school.
“It was just assumed that uni was going to be the way I went,” she says. “I did my own research on my other options.”
Securing an apprenticeship was not easy, and she experienced “a lot of rejections” before she won a place at a medium-sized MEP (mechanical, electrical and plumbing) consultancy.
Her three-year apprenticeship was four days a week with a day at college for her higher national certificate (HNC) studies. Her HNC course was two years, but the apprenticeship requirement of submitting evidence added an additional year.
Read more Ellen passed, gaining a BTec level 4 HNC as well as a CIBSE (Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers) Licentiate, and EngTech certification through CIBSE as an end-point assessment organisation and the UK regulatory body, the Engineering Council.
“It was a huge learning curve and I had to ask for extra help from my teachers,” she says. “At 18, being thrown into the deep end, you just want to do well, you just want to try your best to get all the answers right.
“I had a really good experience at the company that took me on as an apprentice and then gave me a job – really supportive managers – but I found it difficult to balance work, study and having a social life. All my friends chose to go to university and were all over the country, and there was no one around my age at work so having any social life was very difficult.”
Ellen says a “lack of female role models” within her industry and office was also “a difficulty”.
“I have since moved into fire sprinkler design, but starting my new career with a construction qualification and four years of industry experience has meant I am progressing faster th…