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Original poster

So much for apprenticeships !

40 replies

Stasiland · 09/09/2021 10:08

DS was adamant he didn't want to go to uni. Decent gcses and okayish A'levels, but not stellar grades. He was pretty certain he wanted to do an apprenticeship in IT so duly registered with several apprenticeship firms and started applying for various posts earlier in the year. CV and cover letter were literate and grammatically sound, only thing holding him back understandably was a lack of work experience in that field. Fast forward 4 months and zilch..... Apprenticeship company admit it's 'quiet', offered to expand his travelling time to one hour. So in desperation he's applied to our local uni to do a 2 year HND in computing. The uni isn't the most prestigious institution but it's a plan. He will have the opportunity to do some actual work experience between yr1 and 2. But also hopefully it will make him ultimately more employable...
Anecdotally I hear that other teens locally are having the same problems getting onto apprenticeship schemes beyond the normal ones like hairdressing and trades. It's such a shame but ds is so lucky he has another option. Just wanted to vent really and wondered if anyone else's dc has experienced similar issues ?

OP posts:
lljkk · 12/09/2021 11:00

That's super helpful, thanks DoctorDonna.

DoctorDonna20 · 12/09/2021 10:07

@lljkk
Can people age 18+ do L3 apprenticeships thru a 6th form college, does anyone know?

Pretty sure any age adult can do an apprenticeship as long as they don't already have a similar qualification. I've read for example about people with an art degree then going onto study for a STEM degree apprenticeship. I don't think it matters who the educational provider is.

lljkk · 11/09/2021 20:25

thanks for thread.

I am trying to figure out how DS could get an apprenticeship in IT support, coding or databases or something similar. Situation is confused because he's on A-level course but I predict very poor results (unless kid surprise me, which kids do, so maybe... but probably not).

Argh. Virtually No digital/database/IT apprenticeships offered within 50 miles. College offers similar courses that are labeled apprenticeships but they all started last week & DS won't be able to just switch instantly.

Can people age 18+ do L3 apprenticeships thru a 6th form college, does anyone know?

pourmeanotherglass · 11/09/2021 17:22

We advertised a degree apprentice post in my work department ( NHS technical role) and were overwhelmed by the number of good applications we received. We had several kids travel a long distance for the interviews, and felt bad that we only had funding for one post. It seems that there are not enough of these sorts of post for the number of good candidates.

DoctorDonna20 · 09/09/2021 20:27

Really sorry to hear about your experiences. I think it probably varies across the country as my son is in a similar position to yours and was offered two level 3 apprenticeships in IT locally (Yorkshire). He applied direct via the government site rather than an apprenticeship recruitment/training firm so not sure if that made a difference.

Was your son applying for level 4 posts? The ones round here seemed to require extensive experience but bizarrely a lot of level 6/degree apprenticeships require none and look more for "potential", so might be worth considering, depending on how the HND goes. There are still some advertised to start this year and the big name ones for summer 2022 are also starting to be advertised with more to come out over the next few months. Good luck!

Original poster
Stasiland · 09/09/2021 15:07

He applied to one tech company. Seemed a perfect post. The apprenticeship company emailed him and said it's too far away, it's got to be within 45 mins travel. Thing is he's learning to drive and I or dp would have given him a lift until he had passed his test. Appreciate it was further away than we wanted but worth the travel if it was half decent. Weirdly the vacancy is still on the website months later. And because these companies are not local their travel restrictions are illogical. It takes 45 mins on public transport to cross our town, it's actually quicker to travel by train to our nearest big city even though it's further away !

OP posts:
Original poster
Stasiland · 09/09/2021 14:59

@MintjuliaMint we live in the NW of the UK.

OP posts:
Mintjulia · 09/09/2021 13:34

Which county are you based in? I work in IT and know of quite a few active apprenticeship schemes.

Pinkmagic1 · 09/09/2021 13:19

My ds has been looking and applying for months. He wants to go into one of the construction trades or alternatively to become a mechanic. He has completed a one year construction course at college and is still having no joy.

Boulshired · 09/09/2021 13:12

Of the friends of DD and DS1 (both uni age) those who went for competitive apprenticeships were the highly academic or knew someone in the company. One was as an accountant apprenticeship and a photo boy for the college, the company belongs to his step dad and of course not mentioned in the article. Most of those who wanted apprenticeship have took a gap year and applied for university the following year.

Original poster
Stasiland · 09/09/2021 11:30

Funnily enough my son applied for an apprenticeship with direct line in cybersecurity but didn’t have a look in.

OP posts:
Parsley1234 · 09/09/2021 11:11

It’s because of Kick start government funded 6 months work in a company. I work on it in Bristol and the opportunities are insane I have secured a dental nurse traineeship and an apprenticeship for Direct Line this week aside from Kickstart placements

Original poster
Stasiland · 09/09/2021 11:06

All I can think of is that lots of older applicants with work experience are taking the plunge and applying for them due to job instability post covid. The ones with larger firms are inundated with applicants and have pick of the bunch. Smaller firms anecdotally are hiring and not keeping them on. One friends son was halfway through and the company went bankrupt. He was left with nothing. I just wonder what the job market is like out there. Is it literally graduate opportunities or minimum wage/dead end stuff for youngsters now if you cannot get onto one ?

OP posts:
SuperbLyrebird · 09/09/2021 10:54

Yep! My friends' sons are struggling to find apprenticeships and they're looking at trades like plumbing, joinery, bricklaying.

This government is so incompetent!

lockdownmadnessdotcom · 09/09/2021 10:50

I don't have any personal experience of this as ds is going to uni but it's certainly the case that if the government really wants more young people to do apprenticeships and fewer to "waste time" at uni, then they need to facilitate a massive increase in apprenticeship places Sad