6 Ways Your Life Will Be Better In A Tech Apprenticeship
The days of classroom based learning are over.
Calling all students, IT enthusiasts or even those in desire of a career change!
These days, talented engineers are those who take it upon themselves to learn by doing, whether that be completing freelance projects for local businesses or creating apps like 17 year old millionaire Ben Pasternak, or, the more realistic option of working alongside senior developers on real projects, for real customers gaining real experience like me, 19 year old not-quite-millionaire-but-working-on-it junior developer, Peter!
Whether you’re reaching the end of secondary school or further education, it’s likely you’ll soon be making a decision about what you want to do next. For most, university seems like the obvious route, although it may not be the most beneficial!
People often have their doubts about apprenticeships, and I’m here to squash some of those doubts. Let it be known that everything in this post is my opinion, and not some corporate copy-and-paste job. So without further ado, here are 6 of the ways my life is better for choosing an apprenticeship (and yours could be too!).
1. Experience
Possibly the most obvious of all the benefits that come with an apprenticeship is on-the-job knowledge. Ask anyone in the IT industry, no amount of book-based learning can prepare you for working on a real project, on a team of other developers, for real customers.
Apprentices are likely to learn a lot of different things on the job that university students wont. Skills such as communication, teamwork, presenting and common programming practices are things you’ll pick up quickly and take with you throughout your career.
2. Variety
In my apprenticeship scheme in Kainos, we are given our first year to dip our toe in all the different walks of IT, including development, infrastructure, testing, support, and as can be seen from my past 2 blogs, research!
Within this first year, so far, I've been able to do some interesting research work, web development and website management, chatbot development, machine learning, automated testing, web app creation and more…
What comes with this is the need to learn more languages, languages that a lot of university’s syllabi will completely skip over. This isn't to say that knowing more languages makes you a better developer, but understanding what certain languages or frameworks do allows you to get an understanding for why certain projects are developed in a certain way, and can lead you to make better choices about how to approach a solution.
3. Pay
Ah yes, possibly the most appealing part of an apprenticeship to most school leavers, a salary!
Yes, apprenticeships in the IT industry typically offer a generous salary, meaning as an 18 year old, you’ll be much better off than all your mates working in the corner shop evenings and weekends to help pay for their student lifestyle.
A salary might be a great short-term reason to pick an apprenticeship, but if you look at it in the long term, it gets even better! Apprenticeships like mine that offer a degree alongside your full-time job, paid for courtesy of the company, are amazing!
Here in the 6 counties, a standard university bill for a 3 year course plus living costs will add up to around £25,000 of student debt. If you’re planning on studying in the mainland UK, I've got even worse news: You’re looking at about £40,000 of debt, which you’ll have over your head for likely 20+ years.
Without the burden of student debt, anyone who goes through my or any similar apprenticeship scheme will end up getting the money that would have had to go towards loan repayments right in their pocket. This can end up being upwards of £100 a month, not bad indeed!
4. Social
While pay can be the most attracting factor of an apprenticeship, a perceived lack of a social life can be the biggest detractor for many school leavers. Take it from me, you’ll have more of a social life with a 9–5 job than being in University full time.
For starters, you’ll have the aforementioned pay to fund all of your events, dates, takeaways and the occasional drinking session. On top of this, both your nights and your weekends will be free from a part time job, so you can do what you like, not a lot of full-time students can say that!
As far as a social aspect within your job, this is nothing to be worried about. With most IT companies being fairly young, most people you’ll be working with are responsibility free and up for many nights out. Kainos goes so far as to rent out a bar once a month and pay for our drinks!
Excluding the number 1 student pastime (drinking), there are loads of other things you can get yourself involved in. Here in Kainos, there are number of societies and clubs that meet up to play games, discuss side projects, and some of the other apprentices and I are fond of going to the Empire comedy club every week!
5. Employee Benefits
Apprentices are not treated any differently than any other employee in the company. Therefore, you are entitled to any benefits that anyone else is. Obviously these will vary from company to company, so I’ll tell you about some of the benefits I get from working with Kainos:
- Book Allowance
- Training Courses Paid For
- Private Health Insurance
- Pension Contributions
- Free Fruit and Cereal
- £250 to spend on any course or class
This list is not exhaustive, but the point I’m trying to make is that you won’t be made to feel like a fake employee who isn't of any value to the company.
6. Opportunity
In line with the last point, you also won’t be treated any differently than other employees when it comes to promotion either. Depending on your performance, you can be promoted to the level that graduates are at within 3 years.
Aside from promotion opportunities, you’ll have the chance to do things you might not in University.
You’ll be able to get involved with Tech Outreach activities, encouraging school children to pursue a career in STEM subjects. This can be through workshops, presentations, or like the blog have just read!
You’ll have opportunities to attend tech conferences, travel, present to customers or the whole company, change roles or departments and more. As cheesy as it sounds, the sky is the limit. Anything you want to do, they will find a way to accommodate. If you identify a weak spot, all the help you need to improve will be given to you.
In the end, apprenticeships may not be for everyone, but in my own opinion, there is no better way in 2018 for you to kick-start your career in the IT industry than to get your name out there, get working with other professionals while also getting your degree at the same time.
To read more about my own apprenticeship scheme click here!
