Applying for an apprenticeship isn’t the same as applying for college. An apprenticeship is a job, with specific training, working for a company. You normally work 36-38 hours per week, including your training, so it’s a bit different to 12-15 hours a week at college! Want to know how to get an apprenticeship, read on….
It can be confusing to know what to do to find an apprenticeship, because there are mixed messages in schools, colleges and the media. This article will give you a basic understanding of the three different things you can do right now to find an apprenticeship.
Are you ready?
Before you start searching for apprenticeships, it may be helpful to get your CV ready. If you don’t know what a CV is, check out What is a CV on prospects.ac.uk.
1. Register on Apprenticeship website
Most apprenticeships in the UK are advertised on this website, which is run by the UK government. Registering on this site means that you can get notifications of the apprenticeships in the job areas that interest you. You must have an email address to register. To apply for almost all apprenticeships you will need to use email or submit your CV online, so if you don’t know how to attach a document to an email or upload your CV, now is a good time to learn. Youtube can help you learn this.
2. Register with training providers
A training provider is a college or training centre that will run the training part of your apprenticeship. Most colleges are also training providers – they run the training part of apprenticeships, part time, usually one day a week. On the other 4 days, you are in work, learning how to do the job.
Most training providers have specialisms, so do some research to find out the ones who run the type of training that matches the job you want to do. As an example, Michael John in Manchester run hairdressing apprenticeships, whereas Channel Training in Somerset run outdoor activity apprenticeships.
A word of warning about training providers…
Some training providers are like recruitment agencies – they get paid more if they have more people to train. One of the things they want is to have lots of young people signed up with them, so that when an employer contacts them with an apprenticeship job vacancy, they can send lots of good candidates to the interview. What does that means for you? It means you might be one of five, ten, fifteen or even more young people who all want the same job. It’s competitive and it means you may not get an apprenticeship if you just register with training providers. If you’re really serious about getting an apprenticeship, then you need to do more than just register with a training provider.
3. Find your own employer
Sometimes, companies don’t advertise their job vacancies, so this part of your search is more like being a detective than anything else. Use family, friends, your connections, to find companies that you would love to work for and to get some work experience. Think of it as offering the company a ‘try before you buy’ opportunity. You get some new skills, and something good to put on your CV, and they get to try you out for a few days. It may be that they don’t want an apprentice right now, but they change their mind or contact you a few months later.
Work experience is for people of all ages, too, so if you’re 16 or 60, work experience is an all-round winner. If you take nothing else from this article, go and get yourself some work experience and you never know where it might take you.
Good luck in your search.
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