Apprenticeships Are For All Ages and Life Stages | by Sarah Steans

We’re proud to have reached another milestone on our mission: our community has reached 10,000 apprentices and alumni. In this series, we’ll be celebrating this by sharing ten unique stories from some of our most inspiring Community members. 

Comment below on how the Community is helping you achieve your goals!

Parent? Over 40? Part-time worker? If you think these make it impossible for you to do an apprenticeship, it doesn’t! You can still do an apprenticeship and work towards the career you want. I fall into all 3 of the above categories and am also in my 20th year working for my employer.  

18 months ago, I made a decision to join the Supply Chain department in my company, an area of the business I had never worked in before.  Previously, I had been in the Finance, HR and Treasury & Benefits functions.  The common denominator was that I always had an interest in systems and data in any role I had undertaken.   What made me make the decision to move to Supply Chain?  I was completely motivated by the analytical role but the biggest draw was it being Power BI-focused - an area I was passionate about and wanted to develop my skills in.  The drive to work with Power BI helped push me out of my comfort zone and take the leap of being completely new to a department and team. I soon realised how well-suited I was to create efficiencies and engaging visuals.  I found myself looking forward to new requests for improvements and got a real sense of achievement and pride from taking away manual work from others.  It was like I had found my vocation (finally!).  So I wanted to learn as much as I could about data - correct terminologies, further my excel and Power BI skills and broaden my skill set as much as possible.

I then heard about data apprenticeships being offered through my employer.  This immediately sparked my curiosity.  But, I thought to myself, “aren’t apprenticeships just for young people?” As I later found out, absolutely not, they are for everybody!! I gathered as much information as I could through various methods including speaking with my employer's Apprentice Manager, reviewing the online information about Multiverse, and also finding and speaking to other employees who were at various stages of their apprentice journey.  After this, I felt even more passionate about joining the scheme.  

I spoke to my husband who offered encouragement and support (in my opinion, support is very important on this journey, and I’ll come onto that further in this article).  We both agreed that undertaking this apprenticeship would also set a good example for our 9-year-old son. How great is it to say that “mummy is doing school work too”?  We even ended up sharing our “homework” notepad. 

So far during my apprenticeship some of the highlights have been:

• The absolute wealth of training and development opportunities available on the Community Hub
• Getting my own coach and cohort and building relationships with them and understanding more about the other companies offering this apprenticeship
• Networking with others in my own company who are completing the same apprenticeship, who I would never have otherwise crossed paths with
• Having “permission” from my line manager and my company to undertake this development journey and invest in myself in order to do my job better and give me a wider range of future career opportunities.

I would say having self-motivation and determination is key in setting yourself up for success on an apprenticeship, but equally (and maybe vitally), is support.  You need support from your manager, your coach, your peers (someone will need to help cover your day job at times), your cohort, others at your employer going through apprentices, and your family.  You can help yourself by being brave and making contact with others on your course or like me, setting up regular catch-ups and ways of connecting with others at your employment.  There are 5 of us doing the same apprentice course, at the same time.  I had no idea if anyone else at my large company would be on it.  I have been able to network with them, who I would never normally cross paths with, who are based in different areas of the country.  But we have quickly formed a good bond and speak to each other and support each other every week.

In summary, I am on the Level 4 Data Fellowship programme, and I am 4 months into the 15-month course.  I am the first person in my department to undertake an apprenticeship and I feel like I am now working towards the career I want (as well as being a parent, over 40 and working part-time).  If I can do it, anyone can…and at ANY stage of their career/life.

Sarah Steans has been in the Data Fellowship programme at Multiverse since September 2022.