Ask my anything about apprenticeships

[Housewife212]

My son has been doing an apprenticeship since September he is 19.
If you have a child thinking about doing one and your not sure please ask me anything 😋

@TeenTimesTwo

Your academic progress you can most BETECS and HNDs are made up of units so you can go back

But their are degree level ones and I couldn’t say in regard to those

But in terms of the work element yes I think you would have to start from fresh 😕

@Hollowvictory

Aeronautical engineering

@PlantPotParrot

Sorry if your experience was bad

However my son loves his he gets a lot of support from the work place and everyone is eager to pass on their Wisdom he is treated as very much part of the team and I think he was surprised as he thought he would be making tea for a long time he has projects to do deadlines and is expected to speak up in meetings

There is no age limit for apprenticeships. However, in order to be eligible you need not to have an equivalent qualification in the same subject area already. Ie, if you have an ONC in engineering you wouldn't be eligible for a L3 Eng Maintenance apprenticeship.

Recognised a Prior Learning is also taken into account to prevent unnecessary learning.

@SeriouslyStrongCheese you can def do an apprenticeship at any age 16+++
@TeenTimesTwo you can't bank as such as you will need to restart with a minimum of 12 months work, but you can obviously keep your unit work to resubmit. Having said that all apprenticeships are changing over next couple of years and so the course may well have changed. Apprenticeships are changing from skills/knowledge assessed throughout the year, to an end point assessment which will include an observation/professional discussion/ test, depending on subject.

@SophiaLarsen.

Thanks for that I wasn’t sure you can do graduate ones as well

I never said my experience was bad i said your son has been lucky. I dont think his experience is that of your typical apprentice.

Thanks everyone for your input I think a lot of people don’t realise this is even a option or think their just low paid

After talking to my son his mate recently took the decision to forgo uni and do an Apprenticeships
He’s mother was very up set I was able to give her some comfort and he is studying finance at a large bank in the city has to go in when he’s not in lectures
So he’s still getting a degree he’s just having no debt and not having to work in Starbucks at the weekend while also almost securing a job at the end of his course

@PlantPotParrot you sound quite down on them I not trying to make any political statements here just wanting to answer some questions from others who have children who are thinking about this route

And I say again it really depends on the sector their are a lot of very good Apprenticeships
Most of my sons friends are Apprentices now and get the most fabulous opportunities

Not down on them as such but your thread would have everyone believe theyre well paid and fantastic and obviously, some are. Im just saying theyre not all like that.

A lot has changed since i did mine it was years ago!

Where I work we take on technical apprentices. They attend college full time in year 1. In year 2 they do day release or it's all on-the-job (depends on the exact role). One of them began doing a degree on a day-release basis: it's tough but she's totally focused and determined. Year 3 they are on about £17K a year and year 4 on £20K. All training is paid for.
It's a big organisation with a full-time apprenticeship coordinator who provides support to the apprentice and the line manager throughout the recruitment process and the 4 years.

Admin apprentices with us do only 2 years, and training is all on-the-job.

@yes a lot has changed

Their are a lot of high level ones now and some are harder to get than uni places most engineering companies now only take apprentices at post graduate or graduate level

I know surveying and accounting is going the same way

These are high paying sectors so they can afford to pay their apprentices A good wage

With a lot of unis giving out unconditional offers

apprenticeships are on the whole hard to get

My son had to have 6 a-c GCSEs at higher level

A betec merit level of higher

4 references
He did a on line Iq test on line interview
Face to face interview an assment day with 30 other lads and one girl who got one of the 4 jobs alone with my son

You can do an apprenticeship at any age, however the government fully funds apprentices aged 16-18 and will give the company a 1k grant for taking on a young worker so some companies will discriminate against older workers, some wont.

Apprenticeships are not an east route, it's no longer your dads mate who owns a garage, the majority of apprenticeships include working part time, studying part time including in your own time and evenings followed by exams and assessments. They may even including doing level 2 maths and English if you haven't already passed these.
The amount of young people and parents I speak to who say they / their kid wants an apprenticeships because they don't want to be in a classroom ....honestly they have no clue what an apprenticeship actually is!

The wage is fairly low but you will have the same employees rights as everyone else and you should not be treated as less able than anyone else.

SeriouslyStrongCheese

My husband started an apprenticeship almost 3 years ago at the age of 34.

It’s a long, hard slog as he did 2 years of full time college to gain a qualification beforehand.

It’s classed as a higher apprenticeship that he is doing, so his current 3rd year salary is around £25K, rising to around £28K in 4th year. Once finished he will go into the company as an engineer & hopefully work his way up from there. He got ‘Apprentice of the Year’ last year for the whole year group of all company apprentices so he should have decent prospects within the company.

It’s very difficult later in life but not impossible!

Your son is obviously doing well but with respect you can't possibly provide information or advice on all of the 1000s of apprenticeships out there.

Just like jobs they all have their own features, you can't generalise

You are very much mistaken if you think all apprenticeships are like your son's, they most definitely aren't.

I'm 26 and have been looking at apprenticeships for a while. Have found none that would even cover the cost of my rent. £575.

caughtinanet

I was just trying to give an insight into the basics and my sons experience.

I have said that their are all different types and in the main I was talking about higher level
Sorry but I going to abandon this thread I simply wanted to share my family experience and support others who’s kids are thinking of doing the same

but clearly some have different agenda

I don’t know how many ways I can say the pay depends on the sector and research needs to be done

Some dont have a different agenda some just have a different experience than yours and dont want people to blindly walk into apprenticeships they think will be amazing and then end up sorely disappointed.

@PlantPotParrot I think you do

is worth repeatedly coming in to the thread saying well not all traineeships are decent after the poster has clearly pointed that out

you and others clearly have and agenda

This is a thread for people who’s kids want to do one or parents who don’t know much about them

Your are clearly neither you experience of them are years ago and you claim you had a good experience so agin not sure your agenda

Having recruited many graduate engineers, the disadvantage in being an apprentice is that I don't believe that you can become a chartered engineer without a degree. Which would severely limit progression. Our apprentices had good job opportunities but were simply not considered to be the same calibre and didn't have the same progression opportunities as grad engineers. Our grads started on £30k and rapidly progressed.

Well i have a decent job and good income so no reason for an "agenda" against them. Just givinh an opposite opinion to yours, which is allowed btw.

They are a good option for the less academic.

They can also be very good for the academic too!

All apprenticeships are different but in my view the key thing is that the person doing it is completely committed to that career. I work for one of the Big 4 (accountancy) and my firm offer a higher apprenticeship route. Two of my colleagues have done this - one of them had University offers from Durham and Bristol but knew she wanted to do accountancy the whole time so didn't want the debt. She got all A's and Bs in her A-levels and is now 21 and on about £28k. My other colleague is 25, again got As and Bs and knew he wanted to do accountancy. He is on £50k a year and quite honestly will be a partner within 5-10 years.

No these might not be "the norm" but I completely get what the OP was trying to say. There is still a lot of snobbery about apprenticeships and how they are for the "less academic" - simply not true and I think it's good she's raised it.

Hollowvictory

Nope they are harder than going to uni

Most unis now give unconditional offers

You wouldn’t be able to get a engineering traineeship with the a levels that many of my sons peers have got into unis with because their to low