It’s National Apprenticeship Week!

This week it’s National Apprenticeship Week – a great chance to learn more about apprenticeships and think about one as an option after leaving school or if you’re considering a career change.

Apprenticeships are a brilliant way to learn skills to give you a career for life – earning whilst you do it!

Meet Matthew

Matthew completed his four year electrical apprenticeship with Raven in 2018:

“It was becoming clear at school that an academic route wasn’t the best option for me, so my Dad encouraged me to look for a job in a trade. Like many teenagers, I pushed back a bit… but now I’m thankful to him as it was the best way into work for me. He said, being in a trade you’ll never be short of work or friends and he was right!”

Since completing his apprenticeship with Raven, Matthew is now a qualified electrician and is a working quality supervisor in our trades team, he said: “my apprenticeship gave me the skills I can use for the rest of my life and I’m thankful of that. I would say my attitude and want to succeed along with the on-the-job training has got me to where I am today.”

We asked Matthew what he would say to someone considering an apprenticeship and he said: “go for it – 100%! The uni route isn’t for everyone, I know so many people who went to uni who aren’t using their degree in their jobs now and they’ve got big debts because of going. With an apprenticeship you build employment history, get practical training and learn skills … all whilst you’re earning! The work-life balance I have is great and even when I was doing the coursework for my apprenticeship I wanted to do it as I knew it was working towards my career in a useful way.”

To find out more about an apprenticeship with us, visit our Apprenticeships Careers page. There’s some handy FAQs to tell you more about how apprenticeships work and you can register your interest to find out when we release more apprenticeship opportunities here at Raven.