My Apprenticeship Journey: Expectations vs Reality by Laura Newham

Laura Newham is a Digital Business Apprentice at RPC, writing for the Multiverse Community.

I am currently 5 months into my apprenticeship, studying the digital business accelerator but I always thought I wanted to go down the Uni route until I was told about apprenticeships where you can gain specific qualifications relevant to the industry you want to go into, gain valuable work experience in said field and be paid. This all sounded too good to be true!

But no one told me just how competitive apprenticeships are and difficult to get hold of decent ones. I searched for months going through months of interview rounds (some lasting 6 months!) just to be told it would go to someone else. I was beginning to feel defeated like I had chosen the wrong path because I was being told apprenticeships are out there, yet they were so hard to come by until I found multiverse which has been transparent and true to their word from the start where I immediately found my ideal role (which I could not be happier in).

My journey has not been easy but I am a strong believer in everything happens for a reason as during my search I had found jobs which almost seemed too good to be true and that was because they were since upon description they were looking for experts in the fields (yes that is a reason I got turned away from an entry level marketing apprenticeship). From what I could see in the market, was that most jobs had a different idea of what an apprenticeship is, by definition apprenticeship is a position which allows you to learn and gain experience yet they were expecting you to know it all already which is so unrealistic and is taking advantage of apprentices for cheaper labour.

So, going into my job role, I felt ashamed that I was not going to be good enough and I would fail at my job since I am no expert (despite studying business for five years yet I was made to feel like that and my two years of sales experience was not enough) however, that could not be further from the truth! I have been so well supported by my coach who will reply to any query, my manager and colleagues who help me throughout learning anything from silly simple tasks to going into in depth analysis to help me understand something more complex and if I am not to understand it the first time, they are happy to go over it again and I truly did not expect this level of nurturing to my learning yet allowing me to work independently as well.

I also had a warped perception of what my apprenticeship would like, I thought the 20% OTJ would be separated and unrelated to my work, I thought that it would almost be a day out of my job somewhere else where I learnt something and done assignments completely unrelated to my work as if the two were complete separate entities. I could not be more wrong! Here I have learnt that everything I am taught intertwines and how one thing I may learn at work can help me in my assessments and one thing I may be taught in my apprenticeship calls may help me complete my work quicker such as all the helpful tips we have been learning on Excel.

But this is not just a company appreciation post as I am sure I am making everyone's head grow larger by the second! But I am truly grateful for this as it makes me realise that if I had taken any other job, I know I would not be as happy or at least not as well supported as I currently am. The fact that there is a multiverse portal with any sort of information I need at a touch or that there is a whole host of articles and events in the community hub to watch live or revisit.

I do not know what someone may gain from reading this but in my eyes, I want other people to read this and perhaps they can maybe see themselves in my position. That they can relate to how competitive and difficult to land apprenticeships are and that may make them feel like an imposter when they start due to how much they have been knocked down but please just know you are not alone and certainly not an imposter. You have earned your position and are continuing to grow on your journey and that should be something to be proud of and that we are all in a fortunate position to be in such an enriching learning experience where we also get paid!

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