University of Oxford Apprentices: #Apprenticeship

Natalie's Apprenticeship story

Over the past 2 years I have been completing my Level 3 Laboratory Technician Apprenticeship at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology.

My role as a services technician includes a wide range of tasks such as making agar plates and media, mycoplasma testing, washing glassware, helping in stores with accepting deliveries, and then phoning the relevant group to collect the packages. During my Apprenticeship I also had opportunities to spend time in different areas of the department including the electron microscope facility, flow cytometry facility and one of the labs in my department which is led by Jordan Raff. I feel so privileged to have been given the opportunity to explore these areas in my department as well as doing my day to day role.

Natalie Davis, Apprentice Lab Technician at the University of Oxford

Natalie Davis, Apprentice Laboratory Technician

Finishing my Apprenticeship...

It feels so strange to be writing about finishing my Apprenticeship, the past 2 years have gone by so quickly! The Apprenticeship that I completed had two separate grades to it, one of which is the BTEC level 3 in Applied Science in which I got a D*D* (distinction *). Then the overall Apprenticeship grade which was from my end point assessment (EPA) . For me this involved a whole day of being assessed which was an observation of me working and carrying out different tasks, a professional discussion and then a case study test to apply my knowledge. At the end of this day I was very happy with how it went and I was very glad when I found out I had passed overall.

How do I feel now I have finished?

Well I am obviously very happy to have successfully completed my Apprenticeship! My overall experience as an apprentice has been such a positive one, and one where I have developed a wide range of skills and knowledge that I know I will be able to adapt to any future job. As well as this I have developed confidence in my abilities and I know that will stick with me for a long time. Being an apprentice has kick started my career and I am so glad I decided to do an Apprenticeship and not go to university.

What I am doing now....

I am very lucky in the fact I have been able to keep my same job. The wait to find out whether I was keeping my job seemed like a very long time due to the current pandemic situation but I was very relieved and happy when I found out I had my job still. This has been such a positive end to my Apprenticeship and I am very grateful to still be working here.

Is there any differences to my job now?

Well the obvious difference is that I have a different title which is now ‘Teaching and Services Technician’. Another difference is that I am now part of the Athena SWAN committee in my department, representing the professional support staff. Otherwise my job is exactly the same, just with the added bonus of a pay increase.

4 years ago when I was in the last year of my A Levels and making that decision whether to go to university, I never would have dreamed of working at Oxford University. Yet here I am those few years later having completed my Apprenticeship and have a full time job - all at a place I never would have imagined working.

Read Natalie's case study on our website!

15.10.2020

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University of Oxford in Top 100 Apprenticeship Employer Table... Again!

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Our Fantastic Apprentices

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1 hour in Marketing, packed within a day of work experience

#Apprenticeship

By Daniela Cazan

Thinking back to the time I was 15, starting my week of work experience for a Marketing and Design Agency, has had a BIG impact on where I am now.

The week of discovering new digital tools and jumping into ‘the business world’ was an eye-opener. Being my first ever experience of using social media and utilizing my creativity as part of work, was so enjoyable that I ended up volunteering to work every Wednesday afternoon.

So now looking back to my personal experience, I knew I wanted to do the same, to offer some sort of support or guidance for other young students finding their way in life. The opportunity to offer the insights of my job role, Digital Marketing, popped up recently and I took it INSTANTLY! Sharing the day-to-day role in Digital Marketing is hard to show, as one day you could be creating pages for a website, and the next day attending an event. The variety of opportunities to network and constantly gain new insights into the fast-pace role is what Digital Marketing is all about.

I was offered an hour to mentor a young lady who was on her day of work experience, gaining insights into HR, Finance, Marketing and more. As it was my first time in mentoring, I decided that providing the chance to create a video clip and create a social media post would be the best option for Ellie to get the ins and outs of Digital Marketing.

Video clip
We initially started producing a short clip on a digital tool called Lumen5, it’s a short number of slides with images and text that can be used as Ads around the Saïd Business School Tv screens or via social media platforms.

To begin with, we went through the brand guidelines of the school. To promote any organisations work, you must have some sort of brand image, so people recognise who you are i.e. by communicating in a specific tone of voice. We then inserted the scripted text, to which some slides were automatically generated. Now, this is where the fun started. We could insert images from the event (Map the System – Global Final 2019) and play around with the layout and the position of the text. This may sound easy but it’s quite fiddly, in the way you don’t want the text to override the image itself.

As Ellie’s first try, the clip looked great! I was impressed by how quick she picked things up (see above)!

Social media post

After the amazing try of producing a clip on Lumen5, I thought we could give a go at creating a post for social media. We began with HootSuite, a digital tool that allows organisations to schedule posts for all social media platforms. Which was a shock to Ellie, as she always thought all social media posts were published live. Though this can be the case sometimes when ‘live-tweeting’.

We began with Ellie’s interests and what she would typically see on Twitter, we then used this idea to draft a post on Hootsuite for our Twitter account @SkollCentre. Expressing the key message of the post with the use of hashtags, @ holders, URL links and use of media. Creating this ‘rich’ twitter post while being within the 280 characters. Once happy with the draft, we both asked ourselves, would we find this post interesting? Does the post stand out? When answered yes that’s when we decided to schedule the post.

The experience in shadowing Ellie producing some amazing content in such little time, was rewarding. Spending an hour sharing insights in Digital Marketing to a young student, who came out with a newly learned skill. Made me want to carry on providing support to young people on their journey of finding their ideal job.

Written by:
Daniela Cazan, Digital Marketing Apprentice, Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, Saïd Business School.

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Meet our digital marketing apprentice

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Careers Fest 2019

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INSPIRING APPRENTICES - INTERVIEW WITH MASON

#Apprenticeship

By Miranda Reilly

Mason Malin, Security Patrol Officer and Past Apprentice

Mason completed an apprenticeship as a security patrol officer in 2016 with OUSS, Oxford University Security Services, and now works in this position full time. He loves his job, and says there's rarely a day he goes home wishing he hadn't been at work. He particularly enjoys getting to pass on knowledge to new members of staff.

Mason in his uniform at the Old Observatory, where Security Services is based.

· Tell us a bit about yourself, what do you enjoy?

Well, I love football as a start, and going out with my friends – I’m quite a social person, so I like being with mates, whether that’s watching football or something else. I support Arsenal, not so much Oxford United! I also used to be a pool player! … Before this role, I was at college. When I was 17, 18, I was doing manufacturing and engineering: I did well in it but I didn’t like it, I found it easy to study but a bit boring. So this was a big turn in my career.

· So how exactly did you come across your apprenticeship here?

When I finished college I wasn’t keen to carry on, I wanted new opportunities. I always thought an apprenticeship would be better than university, so I looked for opportunities. I saw one opportunity which was closer to what I studied at college: things like 3D modelling at a local company. I was on the verge of getting that, but the company lost funding, so I was back to square one. Then I saw the University: the advert for the apprenticeship looked really dynamic. I think I just saw it online when I typed in apprenticeships. With security, I thought it would need quite a motivated mindset and I like solving problems, problem-solving. I got asked for an interview after being shortlisted, and heard back the same day, even though I was told they’d take about a week to get back to me! It must have been about a month and a half after that that I started at the job. My apprenticeship was a year, and I did a Customer Service NVQ. The customer service course was quite different to security, but we’re becoming more focused on customer service here now so it’s heavily involved in what we do.

· And are you from the local area?

Yeah, Watlington – it’s about 25 minutes away. It’s one of the smallest towns in the UK. I could drive at the time as well, so it wasn’t very far.

· You now have a permanent role at OUSS. Were you offered it straight away following on from your internship?

Well nine months into my apprenticeship it was up in the air, since the apprenticeships scheme was new to my department. There were four of us, and they kept two. When there were about two months left to go, they said the contract would just role over, and it did just like that. Clive [the Apprenticeships Manager] hosted an award ceremony at the Sheldonian Theatre – that was brilliant. So it was a pretty smooth transition once I was asked.

· Is your current job very different to your apprenticeship, or similar?

In terms of difference… the job not so much. It’s very much the department that’s changing. We got a Customer Service Accreditation, so we’re now more orientated around customers, so what I studied goes well with what we’re aiming for. So it’s not too different, but new staff have come in and there’s a little more responsibility for me. There’s a training programme that’s been set up, so some staff give the training like a tutor. I get to share my knowledge with new people, and it gives people confidence. I’m not told how to do things anymore but I’m asked ‘Mason, can you do this please?’ because I know how to do it.

· Do you enjoy that mentoring role of getting to pass on your knowledge to new staff?

Very much so. Looking forward, I would like to take up one of the tutor roles if they offer it to me. The support I’ve had and everything has been really good, and it’s very much my mindset to help people out and do my best. So, I’d very much like that to happen.

· Could you talk me through an average day in your job?

Hm, an average day – there isn’t one, really. But… we come in at about 6.30 in the morning, then there’s a briefing at 7 from our supervisor – so any ongoing events, anything that happened overnight, what has happened on stand-down days – so we know what’s going on. We know what commitments we have like ‘Can you go and assist this person at that time’ and general commitments for the day – it might be unlocking and locking the parks, which means a nice walk around the parks to freshen you up, or locking buildings, or you might be in the control room which is alarm monitoring, radios, phone calls, CCTV monitoring: that’s what I’m doing this morning. We’ll be working this weekend, but that’s part and parcel of the job. So you know what you’re doing and you’re briefed up. During the day on patrol high visibility is important, to give people that reassurance, making sure a response comes through when an intruder alarm goes off. It’s very much a mix. The night shift is completely different, there’s everything going on in the city, so there’s the people to deal with, the welfare of students, making sure they get home safe. There’s a lot of bike crime in Oxford – that’s a major one – and a lot of the crime happens on our property, so we’re involved in that, we get requests from police for CCTV footage.

· So it sounds like a huge amount of variety?

Yeah, you get break-ins sometimes: I’ve experienced it all. I haven’t even been here two years and I’ve had so much experience, which is good from a careers point of view. I know what to do, and how to do it because I’ve done it before. It’s quite reassuring – it’s a bit daunting at first but you’re always with an experienced person.

· Do you always work in a team or is there a lot of solo work?

Yeah, there’s your supervisor and deputy supervisor. In the control room there’s you, a colleague, and your supervisor, and on the beats, there’s three beats, all crewed up in twos. However, if there’s sickness or staff shortages you sometimes work alone, but you’re never sent where an intruder might be on your own. We have a radio network, where you press a button every so often so in the control room they can see you and make sure you’re alright. So there’s quite a variety – and when you’re on a job, it’s just you two so you decide if you split off to do separate tasks. Teamwork is key to making sure there’s good communication on the job and in the control room, especially since you might have to call someone out: police, a fire engine, an ambulance.

· Do you get on well with your team?

Definitely. Unfortunately I’m moving teams in a few weeks but that’s part of the job – it happens. I definitely get on with my team, they brought me here from an apprentice, so there’s that confidence factor: I have confidence in them and they have confidence in me. We rely on each other.

· Do you have a favourite place in Oxford?

I like how historic Oxford is, there really is so much history. There’s the museums, the Ashmolean you can look around, the Radcliffe Camera and the Bodleian – there’s really a lot of meaning behind that. The colleges as well: so many people have been to them – political people and other names you’ve heard of. So the history interests me, the University in general, not really a specific place.

· So do you do a lot of work with the colleges or mainly departments?

Yeah, the colleges call us quite a bit, because they have porters but not security – we provide the security to them. So again, there’s that interworking between colleges and us, departments and us: it’s the key to making sure it all rolls smoothly.

· What advice would you have for someone interested in an apprenticeship or a similar role to you?

… Not to be contained, to go in open-minded, and give yourself that opportunity. I didn’t know what I was getting into at first, and I’m really happy now I’m here. So look at the opportunity – you can move around as well, if you go in and do your year, you can always move around if you don’t like it, we have so many apprentices in Estates: it’s not like moving to a different job, you’re moving within the university. So it allows that diversity. The main thing is to go in open-minded.

· What would you say to other departments that aren’t sure if they should have apprentices or not?

I think I’d say, and I’m going by what people have said at our department, that it’s great for bringing in fresh ideas from a younger generation. Although you don’t have to be younger to do an apprenticeship, generally people are, so there’s that new knowledge – they appreciate me in the control room for being able to type fast, with the IT side of things. And again, there are fresh ideas when you’re bringing in not just people who have been in the field for 40 years. It’s also a great platform for getting people into jobs, it’s not expensive and you get someone who really wants to work. Not many people come into apprenticeships thinking they’re planning to leave, they want to pursue something and stay on. A lot of departments will be surprised: if you’re not sure just go ahead with it. When I first came, my department thought, you know the stereotype: here’s an 18-year-old guy, will he be turning up early on a Saturday morning? It’s easy to stereotype. It’s great to really prove yourself. Ask other departments about their experiences of working with apprentices.

· What would you say the highlight of your time so far has been?

a It's yet to come! Every day has been great. It's a great team, and a great department. I put myself out there and showed this is what I can do: it would be a loss if you lost me. So there's not a particular highlight, it's always good, always enjoyable. I rarely go home and think 'I wish I wasn't in work today.' I want to come to work, I'm not in a job where I don't enjoy it and am just doing it for the money. I have a job that pays well and I'm happy in it. It's just proof of the longevity of apprenticeships. I've said to my department instead of just looking for seven full-time staff, get a few more apprentices in, look for five full-time and two apprentices.

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INSPIRING APPRENTICES - INTERVIEW WITH HARRY

#Apprenticeship

By Miranda Reilly

Harry Kachika, Apprentice Mechanical Technician

Harry started his apprenticeship about a year ago after studying maths and engineering at college. He enjoys every day of it and the people he works around. In the future, he’d like to use his experience to go abroad wherever his work takes him.

· Hi, Harry. Could you start by telling us a bit about yourself, do you have any particular hobbies?

I go to the gym a lot, and I play basketball daily. I go out sometimes, not that much. I’m very active.

· What is your apprenticeship, and how far into it are you?

I’m a year and a bit into it now; it’s three years long. I’m an Apprentice Mechanical Technician.

· What are you hoping to do once it’s finished?

I’m hoping to stay here for a bit; in the future… I’d like to branch out, maybe go abroad.

· Any particular country?

Not a particular one, wherever it takes me!

· Can you talk us through an average day here?

Right now I’m working on my project, but usually academics from different departments come into the workshops with drawings, asking us to make things for them. I use a lot of different machines – CNC [Computer Numerical Control], lays, drills, grinders.

· What are you doing for your project?

I’m making a typing machine.

· Did you get much free choice in that, or was the project assigned to you?

It was a free choice, but it was also a mutual decision between me and my supervisor about what would be best.

· What are your supervisor and other people overseeing you like?

They’re really helpful, I think – they’re understanding that you’re an apprentice, so you don’t know everything, so they have to be very patient but at the same time they challenge you. I think they’re really good people.

· Did you always want to go into this career, or were you unsure?

I always wanted to go into engineering, yeah. Not this specifically, but definitely engineering.

· What were you doing before you started here?

I was at college, studying maths and engineering.

· Did your college talk about apprenticeships much?

Not really, they were more on the uni side of things – I found out about apprenticeships myself, really.

· So how did you find out about Oxford’s apprenticeships?

I found it on the apprenticeships website. It was a fairly easy application process, pretty straightforward.

· And has it been how you expected it to be or has it surprised you?

I don’t know what I was expecting, since I didn’t know what apprenticeships were like, but I’ve had previous jobs so I was expecting to work independently, but wasn’t expecting how easy it would be.

· What skills and experience do you think you’ve gained?

I’ve definitely gained more confidence, people skills; I’m better at working by myself as well as in a team, I’m more punctual – I’ve learned a lot of mechanical engineering skills as well. I think it’s a good experience, a good opportunity for people not looking to go to uni.

· What would you say to other departments who are considering hiring apprentices but aren’t sure?

I think it would be a good idea: more people are going into apprentices, and if the department want their knowledge to keep growing when the older guys retire, they should take on apprentices. Apprentices gain knowledge from the people who are already there and can carry on when they leave.

· Any other thoughts?

Give it a go, man. Even if the apprenticeship’s not the one you want, you can always switch: working at the university means that you can try out different departments if you’re not feeling the one you’re at.

· Have you explored any other departments yourself?

Not other departments, but I have explored other engineering buildings. I would like to go see others, though.

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INSPIRING APPRENTICES - INTERVIEW WITH LEANNE

#Apprenticeship

By Miranda Reilly

Leanne Daniel, Human Resource (HR) Administrator Apprentice

Leanne works with University Administration and Services, which includes overseeing the personal inquiries and recruitment panel inboxes. A perk of the job, for her, are all the events and talks she gets to go to – plus access to the University’s beautiful buildings!

Tell us a bit about yourself – do you have any particular hobbies, for example, or a favourite place in the world?

Hm, I do enjoy the Caribbean – I was born there and came over to England when I was two. My hobbies probably include… cooking, reading books, going to the gym. I’m quite into electronic music; I tend to go see DJs.

· Can you talk us through an average day in your apprenticeship?

Well the first thing I do is check my emails – I’m looking after the personal inquiry inbox, which gets emails about sickness, probation, reference requests for people looking to buy a mortgage and other things like that. I also do the recruitment panel inbox: I’m the person who starts the whole recruitment process by raising staff requests for there to be a vacancy for recruitment.

· That sounds like quite a lot of responsibility?

Yeah, quite a bit if I mess up! But my line manager is always checking my accuracy, so I do get support with what I’m doing which is good.

· You mentioned when you came in that you’re also going to college?

Yeah, so the way I get my formal qualification is by going to college one day a week for a period of weeks. Right now I’m learning Functional Skills in IT, which runs for about five weeks, then added onto that five week period, there’s eight weeks for the business admin side of the apprenticeship. At the end of those I’m required to take exams to get a Level 2 Business Admin qualification – but at least once a month I meet with my college assessor who sets me unit work to do within the time that I see her.

· So did you always want to go into this career, or did you have other plans?

It was quite a jump: I did forensic science last year, but after doing research into Human Resources and Business Admin, I found out that I could branch out into any field through HR and Admin, so if I wanted to go into science, I could still do that but through helping with business and admin.

· Did you have any doubts about apprenticeships?

Yeah, there were various reasons for having doubts: the first reason was that it’s not seen as a successful option, the second reason was the pay: the minimum pay for apprenticeships is £3.40, which is ridiculous – even with my parents, the first thing they said was ‘How are you going to survive? The money isn’t enough for the amount of hours you’re putting in.’

· How do you find the pay at Oxford?

That’s why Oxford are quite great since they pay the Living Wage. It’s fantastic: I’m being paid quite well to earn a qualification, so the opportunity is amazing.

· Do you enjoy what you do?

Yeah it’s great, I love the team that I work with. Even outside of my immediate team, people who work here are friendly, welcoming and helpful. The best part is the opportunities I get: I’m allowed to work quite closely alongside Clive, the apprentice manager, and he invites me to events and talks. Recently I went to see Sir Michael Fallon, who spoke on science – it was very interesting. Having access to these things is incredible.

· Have you been able to work with or meet many other apprentices?

I’ve met quite a few apprentices through events. I did a careers festival at BMW where I met some apprentices I wouldn’t have met at UAS because they’re working in other departments; I met one apprentice working at one of the Nuffield Hospitals. When I started, I also had quite a few meetings with other apprentices, so I could meet them and stay in contact.

· Do you like working in Oxford, as a city?

Yeah, it’s close to where I live and the buildings are incredible – now I work here, I have access to quite a few buildings. I’m planning to look at them in the summer a lot.

· Any buildings in particular?

I’m probably going to go to the Bodleian, I’ve only seen it from the outside.

· So what is your advice for students at school considering apprenticeships?

I want to be that free spirit that just says go for it, do what you want, haha … but make sure you’re not ruling out other options: look at all the options – apprenticeships, university. Listen to what you’re telling yourself, external people can advise you but you’re the person who’s going to be doing it. You need to know you will enjoy it and work to the best of your ability.

· What would you say to parents who might put pressure on their child to go to university?

Parents need to be open to the idea of apprenticeships and how helpful they can be for growth. Not every child learns in that old-school textbook way, some require experience to learn something, practice it and get good at it. There are also chances to do higher apprenticeships, so you can still get a qualification at the end of it, so there’s opportunities there.

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INSPIRING APPRENTICES - HARRY CLARKE

#Apprenticeship

By Katie Holmes

"Working, learning and earning!" What more could you want?

Harry Clarke is undertaking a two year Apprenticeship in HR at the Earth Sciences Department, which he will complete this October. Alongside working for the department, the Apprenticeship so far has involved him obtaining his level 2 and 3 business qualifications and his level 3 CIPD qualification at Abingdon and Whitney College.

Harry attended Fitzharrys School in Abingdon, where he completed his GCSEs and began his A-Levels, before deciding he would be better suited to an Apprenticeship. He began researching and applying for different Apprenticeships and was informed about the Oxford University Apprenticeships by his mother, who also works at the university.

Upon embarking on the Apprenticeship, Harry has gained team working skills and networking experience, alongside general business experience. In his job at the Earth Sciences Department he is involved with recruitment, pay roll, travel insurance and administrating new starters and leavers. Even just the experience of working in an office has been worthwhile, as this is an experience graduates do not have. In addition, the Apprenticeship Training he has received has taught him a broad range of business skills that, not only help him with his current job, but have also have prepared him for any future job in the business world. Harry strives to do his best in the workplace as receiving recognition is a huge motivation for him.

Harry said the best aspect of his Apprenticeship is that it allows him to be “working, learning and earning” all at the same time, something degree study or a job with no training simply cannot offer. He thinks that more employers should look into running Apprenticeships, but only if they “ensure they have enough work” to give to the Apprentice and that they have the time to manage and oversee the Apprentice. As for future Apprentices, Harry’s top tips were to apply to as many as possible and to ask for feedback after an interview, to help make future applications even stronger! The most important thing, however, is to make sure you are interested in the type of Apprenticeship you are applying for as Apprenticeships require hard work and dedication.

Once he has completed his Apprenticeship Harry hopes to remain in the HR sector, whether that means continuing work at the Earth Sciences Department or looking for other jobs in the university and elsewhere. His involvement in the Oxford University Apprenticeships has meant he has met people who work in other parts of the university who have given him the opportunity to explore other departments such as social media, digital communication and general admin. All of this puts him in good stead to advance in his career upon completing his Apprenticeship this October.