i am so glad i started an apprenticeship…here’s why.
I am only just starting out in my career but let’s just say I had no idea this was what I was going to be doing at 18.
For a little back story, I began my career aspirations wanting to be on stage, singing, dancing, acting, you name it, I did it! When most children were at the park on the weekends, I was running around London going to castings and auditions. It then all came to a stop when I realised that I was not that interested in being on stage and felt like the backstage jobs were much more fascinating.
Fast forward to secondary school and I was set on being a writer. I really loved English and did very well in it at school, to be honest any subjects where I could be creative were the ones that I thrived in. I was that student who would doodle art at the back of her book and sometimes I was more interested in how pretty my notes looked rather than the notes themselves. Once I got to year 11, the covid-19 pandemic decided to make itself known to the world and it cancelled our GCSE’s. Now back then, knowing that we didn’t have to take exams was amazing news but knowing that your results were down to the decisions of teachers and mock tests was when I wished I was a bit more of a teacher's pet. But in all realness, knowing that we were the year, the class of 2020 who didn’t even get the chance to sit our exams and do as well as we wanted felt like I had no control over my choices for the year ahead.
Receiving my GCSE results and realising that secondary school is over, opened my eyes to the question of what’s next? I decided on college where I chose to study social media journalism. After one year at college, I decided to take my diploma and not finish the second year for my extended diploma. What was my plan? Well... I heard about apprenticeships. Knowing that I could be working and studying while making my own money, and gaining work experience, I was sold!
My journey as an apprentice started with me applying to any that I genuinely found interesting. Don’t bother applying to the ones you don’t, you don’t want to be stuck somewhere you don’t want to be for 2 years. Applying to apprenticeships are like applying to jobs, they are trial and error. Some were unsuccessful, some told me the job was straight up not worth my qualifications and I then I got my golden ticket. After some unsuccessful interviews, I scored an interview at Raffingers Chartered Certified Accountants where I had my first ever interview with my now manager Ashlee. We spoke about the job, the company, she questioned me on scenarios and a few days later I got the call that I got the job! I was so excited to start my marketing apprenticeship and my first-ever job. Working in marketing has given me the opportunity to do a lot of what I love all in one job.
Fast forward and I’m approaching the end of my apprenticeship, and now working for Raffingers and Raffingers Marketing doing what I love and soaking up new information and skills every day.
The moral of my journey is to not let uncertainty make you fear your future. It always does get better and the gifts that come from trying are always worth the while.
