To think that actually there aren't many decent apprenticeships around ?

[Undeuxdrei]

Ds1 has just finished his A'levels. He's bright but dyslexic and massively lacks confidence. Needed a scribe for GCSEs but gained 10 pretty decent GCSEs (mainly 5s and 6s). His predicted A'level grades aren't stellar by any means - B, C and possibly an E in computer science, geography and physics. Hates physics with a vengence and is convinced he'll actually fail it. It didn't help that for most of the 2 year course he had very little face to face contact with tutors - we live an area that was in level 4 lockdown for much of the year.
He's realistically accepted that uni wasn't for him so has been applying for apprenticeships in IT which is his real love. Trouble is they seem so thin on the ground. He's seen a few but they are asking for >104 ucas points which he clearly won't have. They tend to be with big well known companies. On the other hand the more local companies are just asking for GCEs so essentially he will be somewhat over qualified and I'm concerned he'll just end up being the teaboy and dogs body.. I've told him to apply even if he doesn't quite meet the grades but he's convinced it's pointless. Thing is I thought the whole thing about apprenticeships was that they were for those who wanted a more vocational kind of learning, on the job and not stuck in a classroom ? I suppose I'd like to know how others had fared getting a worthwhile apprenticeship ?

Why not apply for the local places? Everyone needs to start somewhere and when he proves himself they will soon start letting him do more interesting stuff

With the ones asking just for GCSEs, what qualification are they working towards? That surely is what you have to look for. Also what are the GCSE requirements?

I haven’t done one but have been involved with the scheme at my work. It’s a real issue because over the past few years the government has pushed apprenticeships to all companies and the variation between apprenticeships is huge. Our scheme has run for over 30 years, when our apprentices finish they are highly skilled and often leave to go into far better paid jobs in industry. So they are out there, but can be hard to find and are very competitive.

There is also a difference between apprenticeships and higher apprenticeships, the latter usually require a level equivalent, standard apprenticeships usually don’t.

There are some great opportunities, but like everything you have to dig around. Try searching on this government site:

www.findapprenticeship.service.gov.uk/apprenticeshipsearch?_ga=2.31119478.837164675.1621674472-593723440.1621674472

Also, although he obviously can apply for the bigger ones, if they have too many applicants the first thing they will do is filter by UCAS points and not even read the applications that don’t meet the minimum

I'm concerned he'll just end up being the teaboy and dogs body

And herein lies the problem, school leavers and their parents expect too much, they expect to go straight into interesting structured work, expecting business to spend a lot of time and money on a person they don't know and who often think most jobs are beneath them.
I run an apprenticeship scheme and have done for 30+ years, the willingness to learn from the bottom has almost disappeared in the last few years.

@Essentialgarage I suppose I was just exaggerating tbh. Agree that we've all got to start somewhere.

Apologies, I was taking my current tribulations out on you. We have a current apprentice that started at the bottom and is doing really well, we've just been a bit bombarded this last week from school leavers that seem to think working in a garage is going be like the garages in GTA

What about thinking outside the box I.e. my hospital department is just about to advertise an apprenticeship role in admin, it’s not in IT but is work mainly on a computer. If he did something like this in our hospital he could then maybe move across to the IT department should a role materialise. Likewise the civil service, or local government?

Why does he think local ones are beneath him? That's the issue. A lot of IT apprentiships with larger companies ask for ucas points or x experience and knowledge of, if be started with those he would be in a much better position to progress in the future.

www.notgoingtouni.co.uk/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw16KFBhCgARIsALB0g8KxjIBh_pDDxujZLaYvuCef_2v4HEPYuDRqXuc5hUsWvLbPIr9-EHcaAsRGEALw_wcB

DS had similar grades to those and wasn't keen on uni. We found that degree level apprenticeships were thin on the ground and asked for pretty high UCAS tariffs. With hindsight I think that almost full time work and degree level learning would be tough unless you were very academic and very hard working. But he looked locally at level 3 ones (ie equivalent to A level) Technically accessible on the basis of GCSEs alone but I think it would be a rare 16 year old copes with holding their own in a workplace and studying. DS had one day a week study leave and said the others on his course were mostly 18+. He had been thinking of something in IT or engineering, but ended up in biotech, which is a boom area. He's now 21 and onto a new job earning £26k and absolutely thriving in the workplace. No regrets at all that it was the right decision for him. So I'd say don't rule out the local ones or level 3 apprenticeships.

Have you looked at your local Council. Ours offers a range of apprenticeships in a range of settings including administration, IT and finance.

I'm wondering why he chose Physics at 'A' level if he hates it.

Look at the Civil Service, HM Land Registry have some great apprenticeships and lots of opportunities to progress, especially in IT hmlandregistry.blog.gov.uk/2021/02/08/apprenticeships-at-hm-land-registry-building-a-future/

Back in the day when i started working for a City reinsurance broker the managing director had started as a tea boy

@Undeuxdrei
I have very bright dyslexic son. He retook his A levels and ended up with ABB in maths and physics. Went to uni to study engineering but dropped out. He carried on with his p/t life saving job until he got a temp packing job at a pharmaceitical company. Within months he was offered a permanent job and the promoted again to a technologist. The sorted out a level 4 apprenticeship which he just completed . He was earning over 30k st this point. They are now going to fund a degee apprenticeship for him which is p/t so will take 5 years. The company take on apprentices every year at various levels.

A lot of dcs' friends have gone the apprenticeship route and are doing well from it.

Have you looked at your local hospital OP? Even if they aren't advertising apprenticeships, by getting a toe in the door through an entry level job eg portering/supplies/admin then keeping a nose to the ground for opportunities they will present themselves. My hospital offers apprenticeship pathways in a range of areas including HR, laboratory work, theatres, IT and for nursing and radiology. Off the top of my head that I know about. Probably others too.

@user1493494961 he failed his English language GCSE first time ( got a 3 but since passed) so his sixth form college said he couldn't do A'level maths even though he was 2 points off a grade 7. Physics was really the only option he was given.
I'll have a look at some of your suggestions, they are really helpful. He actually needs to learn to drive as that would create more opportunities. We live in the North west, public transport isn't the best. Somewhere geographically not that far distant can in reality take 3 hours to get to on the bus !

@Essentialgarage

I'm concerned he'll just end up being the teaboy and dogs body

And herein lies the problem, school leavers and their parents expect too much, they expect to go straight into interesting structured work, expecting business to spend a lot of time and money on a person they don't know and who often think most jobs are beneath them.
I run an apprenticeship scheme and have done for 30+ years, the willingness to learn from the bottom has almost disappeared in the last few years.

I agree. I'm a chartered accountant, but started nearly 40 years ago as a "dogsbody" earning under a pound an hour. Nothing wrong with working up from the bottom. You get a much better perspective of different roles within an organisation. I "grew up" remarkably quickly in the first few weeks! Although I was "officially" a trainee accountant, I took the post to the post office, I took money to the bank, I made the tea/coffee round for my co-workers in our shared office. I had to do that because the "real" accountants who were training me didn't have unlimited spare time to give me 1-2-1 attention, so when they needed to concentrate on their work, I'd go to do errands for other depts. It lasted maybe 3-4 months, until I'd picked up enough "proper" experience to be able to do "proper" work on my own initiative with less hands-on supervision, and within, maybe, a year, I was a self-supporting member of staff, working with minimal training/supervision. In later years, I've been involved numerous times with taking on trainee staff, often graduates, and a few have really expected "hitting the ground running" virtually the moment they walk through the door on the top quality/exciting work - they get a rude awakening when they realise they don't have the skillset and end up on the drudgery work at first.

The company I work for takes on post GCSE apprentices every year. They do block release to college between work placements in different areas of mechanical/electrical engineering, and come out into a full time job with an HNC.
We've just become part of a much bigger company who have their apprenticeships set out, and it seems that IT is always an Advanced apprencticeship for them, requiring Bs at A level, or an HNC.
I'd start with applying for the GCSE ones - if he does well he can do more qualifications, but it sounds like he needs to build confidence and it's better to be able to progress quickly than struggling with having to do exams without a scribe etc

I own a small business and we have an apprentice (Mech Eng) who is just about to finish his course and then will be working with us full time. He didn't quite start making tea and sweeping floors but as someone who had zero work experience and no practical skills it was really important to start with the basics and get a good grounding of those skills. He has worked really hard to add to his skill base and has recently been instrumental in a new product launch and is helping to train a new member of staff (his pay grade reflects this growth) - a lot can be achieved in a few years.

I would urge you to properly research the centre who are providing the training though - the one we went through have been embarrassingly useless and I will not be using them again. Their lack of organisation has held up training significantly and been a huge cause of frustration - I wish I'd done a bit more research about them!

I think you are right to be cynical - I worked for a large company years ago who ran a grad scheme- they revealed at the end of it that the intention was to get really cheap but very keen, motivated workers - 1 out of 50 of them got a grad level job offer.