Progressing Onto Another Apprenticeship - Caxie Dagupen

(5 min reading time)

Hey Caxie! Can you start off by setting the scene for us - what were you doing before your apprenticeship?

Before my apprenticeship, I was working full time as a waitress in my gap year while I was trying to raise the funds to go to university as an international student. I had a place at Loughborough University to study Sports Psychology as my interests back then were all sports related! 

And so how did you find Multiverse or how did they find you? What was your journey to an apprenticeship? 

It was so surreal in all honesty, during my gap year one of my ex-teachers got in touch about an apprenticeship in Media. Working and earning money was something that I wanted to do but not in media - so I just gave a quick Google search ‘Sports Admin Apprenticeship’ and found a job connected to ‘WhiteHat’ at that point. I then created my profile, got approved and moved on to my interviews with that company and I got the job after 3 weeks. It was really exciting for me to get into the corporate world with my interests which I never thought would merge so it was definitely the best of both worlds for me. 

And what was about your first apprenticeship that made you want to progress onto another? 

During my first apprenticeship, I learnt a lot like:

• How to communicate with different stakeholders, even senior ones because the company was a small one. 
• How to manage projects, big or small 
• How to set and execute objectives 

I was able to progress not only in my professional development but also in my personal one while being exposed to office work. I got to really own my development and got into anything that I wanted to investigate about my own career path and interest using the objectives that were set every month and using my 20% off the job time. It was all about applied learning for me as well, I learnt something new during my sessions and I was able to apply it right there and then. This pushed me to pursue project management Level 4 as my second apprenticeship  because I really enjoyed that about the Business Administration Level 3. 

Retrospectively, I had to pay £12k per year for my tuition fee for university so paying nothing and getting paid while learning was very enticing for me. 

Now looking at the practicalities of progressing from one apprenticeship to the next, how did you approach this with your line manager and Multiverse? 

Just before I finish my current apprenticeship, or during 360 reviews, I always bring up what I would like to do and I always do my research on what is available for me. If this is the apprenticeship that I would like to study or if it’s a role that I want to try. So whenever I’m interested in something, I add it to my weekly 1-1 agenda. For example, I wanted to work with the product and tech team so I would ask my manager if I can shadow someone in that team for a few hours to see what that role is about. I would write down any skills that I see that I want to upskill in and build my next few months on that. 

After enjoying project management so much at the end of my Business Administration Level 3, it made sense for me to do Project Management Level 4 as it was a level up and something I wanted to be qualified for. I brought it up with my current manager at that point and she mentioned that this would be available for me in a couple of months which was something that I didn’t want to wait for so I kept my options open. I kept going to Multiverse events and found opportunities with other companies that could offer me another job with the Project Management apprenticeship more immediately. 

Did you face any obstacles during this process? How did you overcome these?

The only obstacle that I faced was that my current employer couldn’t offer me the apprenticeship that I desired when I wanted to. I was able to overcome this by keeping myself open to other options and going out of my comfort zone to go to events. 

What would be your advice for anyone currently thinking of progressing onto another apprenticeship?

My advice for anyone currently thinking of progressing onto another apprenticeship is to make sure they look at the knowledge gaps and skills that they would like to learn and upskill in, write it down and research which apprenticeships there are that fits this. Then look into the roles that go with this apprenticeship which may mean looking at different companies or going to another team within your current employer or changing your job description to fit the apprenticeship role fit. I think the most important thing is to have open and honest communication with your manager to see what’s best for you and your career.

A Multiverse apprenticeship aims to deliver skills of lifelong learning, networking, and opportunities to connect with like-minded individuals. How are you using the Community to help you in your career? 

I’ve used the community events to network and find opportunities.  During my apprenticeships, I really leaned on the different events that were available to me to fit my 20% off the job training. When I wanted to push myself I joined the community team as an ambassador and ran training sessions, spoke to different schools about my apprenticeship.

A lot of the time, if you’re the only apprentice in your team or even your company, talking to other apprentices who are holding down a job, apprenticeship and personal life you’ll feel more motivated to keep going. It means a lot personally to learn from each other and find like-minded people who are going through the same situation as you. This community can and will help you in every way especially if you are intentional about it. 

1. Write down what you want to develop
2. Show and tell your manager that you want to develop these skills
3. See how you can fit it in your role
4. Look at the events that are available in the community
5. Shadow another person or a team
6. Be really intentional about it e.g blocking out time in your diary