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.

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?

I started my apprenticeship in 2014 and finished last year. I work in the same team now full time. I was a Network Operations Apprentice, and I’m now a Network Operations Technician.

·         What did your internship consist of?

I spent a couple hours a day on coursework, and I was assessed once a month. The coursework was a general mixture of learning about software and hardware, databases, fault finding, cabling – so it gave me background knowledge. But the work was mainly network based.

·         And what do you do in your current job?

Mainly networks, lots of cabling around the city, power, UPS batteries, network switches, configurance switches, fibre optic connections.  

·         Did you always want to go into IT, or did you look into other careers?

I definitely wanted to go into IT, but I wasn’t sure which part of it. Originally, I wouldn’t have said networking – I was looking at design, I had a bit of experience in school with that. Maybe in the future I’ll still go into design.

·         What were you doing before you started the apprenticeship?

I finished my GCSEs, did my first year of A-levels then went straight into the apprenticeship after that – so I left school at seventeen. I didn’t want to go to uni, so I didn’t feel that finishing my A-levels would help, so I looked around for apprenticeships and signed up.

·        

·         Is your team small, and do you like your team’s size?

It is a small team, which is good. Our team is about six or seven people, and since I started only one person has left because of retirement, so I know everyone.

·         Are the people in your department a similar age to you or older?

There’s a variety of ages, a couple are in their late 20s or early 30s, a few in their 40s, 50s.

·         That’s quite a change from school where you’re surrounded by people the same age as you, would you prefer working with younger people?

I’ve found it better working with older people – they’ve been in the business a long time, so they know what they’re doing and can transfer their knowledge to me.

·     

·         How did you find the apprenticeship overall?

I definitely enjoyed it, it was the right choice for me once I left school and I would recommend it to everyone. The pay is good, and there’s a wide variety of departments you can work in. 

·         What has been the most challenging in your apprenticeship and job?

The changeover from going from school to a full-time job, while doing a course as well, was quite daunting, but after a few months I got used to it.

·         Did doing an apprenticeship help with that transition?

Yeah, the apprenticeship helped: I had a few days off work, and a few months on a college course.

·      

·         Do you have any plans for the future?

I’m happy where I am for the moment, maybe in a few years I might go to one of the colleges [at Oxford], and work in IT there. But I’m happy right now with my department: it’s centralised, so I get to see the whole university instead of one specific place. I see a different building every day in my work.

·         Are there any buildings you particularly enjoy working with?

I enjoy working with the libraries – there are such old buildings.

·       

·         Do you have any hobbies outside of your work?

I play cricket during the summers, cycle quite a lot and hang out with my friends mostly. 

·         Finally, what's your advice for students considering apprenticeships?

Look around at apprenticeships, make sure it’s something you definitely want to do, something that you can see yourself doing in the future, and that you can get qualifications out of.

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.