Nadia Diaper
Business and Administration Apprenticeship
College of Humanities at the University of Exeter
I am studying an NVQ3 in Business Administration at Exeter College and am employed as an Apprentice in the Humanities Education Team. I help the team with the programme support, staff problems and student queries.
When I finished school at 16, I undertook an apprenticeship in childcare after being offered a nursery practitioner post during my 2 weeks mandatory work experience. This suited me because I needed a job due to financial ties, but doing the apprenticeship also meant that I could achieve a qualification as well as gain practical experience in a work environment, whilst in full-time employment.
Another reason I favour apprenticeships over college only courses is because I can put theory into practice the next working day rather that writing it down in a notebook where I will forget about it. I learn valuable skills that I would not learn in a classroom environment such as how the University education functions, how to prioritise workloads efficiently, and customer service skills.
More recently I have realised that childcare is not the route I want to go down because there are no real career progression incentives and I have been looking for a way into Administration for a while now. I had applied for jobs but never got to the interview stage as they were looking for candidates with previous administration experience. This was deflating because I couldn’t see how I could ever gain the experience if nobody would employ me. Then I saw the job advertisement for a Modern Apprentice and haven’t looked back.
Doing this apprenticeship has really broadened my horizons and I love it. I was welcomed as part of the team from the offset and I often forget that I am an apprentice because they treat me like any other staff member and trust me to manage important documents. My college assessor is great and we have regular meetings and reviews. If I have any questions I email her, and I know I will always get a very quick response, so I never get stuck on assessments.
I feel extremely lucky that I have been given the chance to be an Apprentice at Exeter University and that I will be walking away with fantastic life experience as well as a qualification (and hopefully a job to follow)!
I would whole heartedly advise those looking for education to consider an apprenticeship!