The Benefits of Doing an Apprenticeship in Your Thirties by Ayla Kelly

Ayla Kelly is a Digital Marketing apprentice at Timpson Ltd.

There seems to be a misconception surrounding apprenticeships, in that they’re a young man’s game and typically undertaken straight out of school.

While this is true for lots of people, apprenticeships are a valuable resource to older groups as well. In fact, for this current academic year, over 25s make up 41.5% of new apprenticeships started in the UK.  

I am among this group of over 25s and have just started my level 3 Digital Marketing apprenticeship.  While attending university and gaining a degree in my early twenties did have its merits, completing an apprenticeship in my thirties will be much more beneficial to my career in the long run.

Here’s why:

• What You Don’t Want
  It’s always been my opinion that asking an 18-year-old to know what direction they want their life to go in is a pretty big ask.  Straight out of school, most have little to no knowledge or experience of the working world and where they might fit into it. Obviously,  there are a few lucky ones that are certain from a fairly young age which career route they want to pursue, but for most, it’s a daunting challenge.
  
  To me, it makes more sense to venture out into the world with the skills and interests you have, try out a few jobs, and find out what you might want to do and what you absolutely don’t want to do before you commit to an industry. Theoretical knowledge is one thing, but signing yourself up for a career without being fully informed is another. My near-decade of working in service jobs after university taught me just that. Though hospitality is a perfectly valid career choice, it wasn’t what got me out of bed in the morning.  Learning what I didn’t want from a career was vital in discovering what I did want.  What’s that old adage about mistakes? They’re how you learn!
   
• Independence is Tricky
  Time management, budgeting, self-care, how to iron a shirt etc. All very important skills to have, all take time and practise to learn. Working through my twenties and into my thirties, I’ve had time to hone these life skills. It would have been a lot more difficult learning how to be a functioning human being while also trying to retain information about conversion metrics and buyer personas at the same time.
  
  My years out in the world, working full time and learning how to live independently, have equipped me with skills that will be invaluable during my apprenticeship. Things like prioritising my workload, breaking down tasks into manageable chunks and pacing myself to prevent burnout. For example; time efficiency with housework. Rather than waiting for the laundry cycle to finish, do some dishes or throw the hoover round in that last half hour. Seems pretty rudimentary, but it definitely has professional application as well!  Like rather than waiting idly for someone to respond to your email, write up the notes from your morning meeting or make a to-do list for the week. 
  
  If I was in the position I am now at age 18, I imagine I would quickly become overwhelmed at the amount of “new” being thrown at me and run home to my mum. Though I admire younger apprentices for taking on these two big challenges at once, I am very grateful that I had the time to learn and perfect some basic life skills before moving onto the trickier stuff.

• Perspective and Appreciation
  Remember sitting in a lesson when you were 14, thinking it was tedious and boring and you couldn’t wait for it to be over? Fast forward 10 years and you’re at work, completing the same tedious, monotonous tasks you’ve done a thousand times over, just wishing you had the opportunity to learn something new. 
  
  Pessimistic as it sounds, life can get pretty same-y at times. You fall into a routine, and finding the time for hobbies, friends, or anything extra-curricular is tricky.  I was very much in a rut; a job that I’d gotten everything out of that I possibly could, yet still managing to work every hour under the sun to make ends meet.  I knew I wanted to do something different, but didn’t know where to start.  When this apprenticeship opportunity was presented to me (after several years of looking and many, MANY mistakes) I quite literally jumped for joy. Not only was I embarking on an exciting new career path, but I would receive several qualifications in the process!  
  
  My point is, it’s easy to forget what a privilege it is to have the opportunity to learn something new.  One of my biggest regrets in life is not utilising my time at university to the fullest. I was young and foolish and didn’t take advantage of the opportunities I was given, ending up with a much lower grade than I knew I was capable of. Now that I have a chance at a sort of do-over, I don’t plan on wasting it! I’m so grateful to my employers for giving me the chance to better myself and finally reach my potential. That’s the main thing I take away from starting this apprenticeship in my thirties – gratitude.  

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