The University has been eerily quiet recently and here’s the reason why.
Our first cohort of Technical Apprentices are enjoying a few days away, team building in the Lake District.
I’m sure many photos will follow, but here’s one to be going on with.

Last summer I found myself asking a question that most people, if not everyone, ask themselves multiple times throughout their life.

“What am I going to do next?”

Particularly for young people, there are daunting decisions to be made about the future and what the next step in life is going to be in their education, or for some young people, their career. Working full time, and studying full time both have their benefits, and it can be difficult to figure out which direction is best. Learning about a subject you’re passionate about can be fun and rewarding, opening up a wider range of job opportunities, but similarly the experience and skills gained from a full time job are invaluable, and for a lot of positions, experience and work skills are just as essential as the right qualifications.

The conclusion I came to, was that I wanted the next step I took to be about both my education, and my career. I was ready to be gaining practical skills and experience, but didn’t want to give up on the chance to continue gaining qualifications, and learning more about the subjects that interested me. With a little research and guidance I came across the national apprenticeship website.

After searching through the areas that interested me, namely science and laboratory work, I filled out an application alongside around 100 other applicants, for an apprenticeship at the University of Manchester, a decision which would ultimately change the course of my future.

So what is an apprenticeship?

An apprenticeship is essentially an alternative to the decision between working, and gaining further qualifications. You get paid to work, and gain practical experience, whilst at the same time studying towards further qualifications.

You are fully supported by your workplace whilst gaining these qualifications, and the most common structure for an apprenticeship is four days a week at work, and one day a week dedicated to studying at a college, although there can be variations to this structure.

For example, EPS TAP laboratory technician apprentices attend college one day a week, whereas the EPS TAP mechanical apprentices are employed by the University of Manchester, but for the first few months are at college full time gaining the skills they need to start working at the university.

Hold up, what’s EPS TAP?

You might remember me mentioning that it was an application to the University of Manchester that changed the path I was on? EPS stands for Engineering and Physical Sciences, one of the faculties within the University of Manchester, and TAP is the Technical Apprenticeship Programme. It’s a programme that offers young people in the local area an opportunity to work for the university whilst gaining level 2 or level 3 qualifications, studying at Trafford College.

There are two different types of apprenticeships currently available, mechanical and laboratory technician. Both apprenticeships offer unique opportunities to gain experience working throughout many of the schools within the EPS faculty.

Moving throughout the different schools opens up opportunities to learn about the different types of work available, and allows us to decide what direction we want to go in after our first two years working with the university, after which we’ll be able to decide what area of EPS we would like to continue our apprenticeship in.

Six months into our apprenticeships at the University, we’ve all already had the chance to experience different areas of work, and had many opportunities to develop our skills including training courses outside of our work at Trafford College, not to mention the team building trip to the Lake District we’ll be attending next week, along with other members of staff.

There are many aspects of our first few months at the University that the other apprentices and I are eager to talk about; as I’m sure there’ll be many more as our time at the University continues. I there’s anything in particular you’d like hear us talk about, let us know.

To find out more about our apprentices take a look at this short article from the University of Manchester magazine.