Since the early days of formal apprenticeships, their popularity and scope has grown.
In 1914 the 3 most common apprenticeships were in dressmaking, engineering, and carpentry. Fast forward to 2014 and the 3 most popular were in health and social care, business administration, and management. Apprenticeships are now available in over 170 industries, from finance to aerospace and everywhere in between. Whilst apprenticeships were traditionally associated with the trades, there are now a staggering 1500 different apprentice job roles available.
At Equator Personnel our recruiters have found work for countless individuals that started their careers as apprentices. Here’s a guide we’ve put together to give you an inside look at becoming an apprentice and why it could be the best next step for your career. An apprentice is an employee, in a real job for a real employer. One of the great things about being an apprentice is that you get paid to learn. The minimum salary as an apprentice is £2.73 per hour, but many employer pay more than the minimum.
Doing an apprenticeship is a great way of gaining an accredited qualification. Depending on the level and type of apprenticeship that you do, you can gain anything from the equivalent of 5 GCSE passes at grades A* to C, all the way up to the equivalent of a master’s degree.
As an apprentice the majority of your learning is done on the job. If you’re an experiential learner (someone who prefers to learn by doing), an apprenticeship will be ideal for you. By learning on the job you’ll also gain loads of job specific skills. Many young people or recent graduates struggle to find work as they don’t have the necessary experience. Apprentices never have that issue as they have learnt in a real world environment and gained the skills necessary to do a real job.
