Apprenticeship Case Study on Employment & Transferable Skills by Apprentice Andrea Varga
Meet Andrea
I am a big supporter of Apprenticeships, I have actually completed three: level 2 team leading, level 3 management and most recently level 5 learning & development consultant/business partner.
You might be asking the question why?
I wanted to do an apprenticeship because I could do it alongside work, I also wanted to understand the learner experience in my training manager role to know how to better help my colleagues (I was actually training the apprentice group on other topics when I was not sitting with them as a student), develop my skills and knowledge to grow as a manager and leader and help me take on more senior roles, and my higher apprenticeship also helped me embed consulting and business partnering in my toolkit and take more of a transformational role rather than a transactional one.
I started my career in teaching but when I came to the UK to realise my dreams, I enrolled in a full-time proficiency English course and started working part-time in hospitality - an industry that I fell in love with.
No matter where I worked, I was always drawn to helping and supporting others. My potentials were always recognised even when I held front line roles and my career is not as straight forward as you would expect. This in the current circumstances is not surprising at all – there are many of us who have had to change jobs, careers – but up to a few years ago, moving around and changing sectors and roles was more frowned upon than admired – and this presented challenges when I interviewed for new roles, as you can imagine.
I have held a variety of roles in operations, support, management and leadership and consider it an advantage that I am good at a lot of different things – I have worked in education, telecommunications, retail, logistics, charity sector, financial services but mainly hospitality.
The first time I changed and moved out of my comfort zone – I realised my skills and knowledge are transferrable and my experience is a huge benefit to any role. I also learnt to highlight what I can bring to the organisation and see things from a different perspective, help interviewers see how I can apply my learning and my qualifications. And this was no different for my last apprenticeship.
If I had to draw my career graph, I would probably have to draw two lines that intertwine…
One for Learning & Development where I started in teaching, then years later was given an opportunity to become an Operations Trainer, moved to be a Training Manager, then Learning Adviser, Learning Consultant and reaching Learning & Development Manager role that I had always aspired to achieve, and another one for Service & Support where I started in Guest Services, then promoted to Business Centre Manager, years later taking a role as Sales & Marketing Administrator and promoted to Operations Team Leader and now being Head of Client Services.
My Learning & Development Manager role was a stand-alone role and I realised there was still so much I needed to learn and no one to learn from.
My apprenticeship filled this gap: not only did it give me the skills and knowledge through the programme that I was able to apply in real work projects, but I also had access to an amazing network of people – my group, the tutors, my mentors and social media connections.
And I could utilise all this when -like many others, not only in the hospitality industry - I was placed on furlough last year, then made redundant.
I was still doing my apprenticeship that helped me stay motivated, kept me up-to-date and was also invaluable to lean on in my interviews – not to mention my network who also helped me find opportunities and supported me through a very tough time.
The knowledge I gained from my apprenticeship helped me prepare for interview questions on processes, procedures and technical questions; I was able to give strong examples of what I achieved throughout the course by applying the knowledge and the skills I developed and enhanced - simply from my learning journal, assignments and assessments; showcase my familiarity with all aspects of being a Consultant and Business Partner, current trends and technology and Leadership.
I did have to draw on the behaviours and qualities that drive professionals, be resilient and once again stretch my limitations and comfort zone.
Through career coaching I explored various avenues, followed advice in tailoring my CV, application and interview preparation to the role and sector – what was consistent in my approach that I was able to capitalise on my apprenticeship – by matching the skills, knowledge and behaviours to the requirements. The self-assessments, feedback and reflections during my apprenticeship programme also helped increase my self-awareness, talk more easily about my strengths, areas of improvements, showcase my successes and discuss lessons learnt with confidence and authenticity that I had not had before.
If you are applying for roles and preparing for interviews, treat it as one of your assignments, follow the same learning process (plan – do – review), discuss and get feedback and believe in yourself!
Look at your learning, read your learning journal, get you’re your project, workshop notes, books, feedback forms – What are the skills, knowledge and behaviour you can highlight most that would get you the job?
What examples can you tell the interviewers that will make the most impact? What are you most proud of? Forget about needing to have experience or qualifications in a specific field – what matters is how YOU and ONLY YOU can bring the right attitude, passion, drive and skillset that the role and the organisation needs. Your job is to convince the interviewers to see this.
You can achieve anything you put your mind to: look at my career history – but even more so, look at my life.
I grew up in Hungary and only started learning English when I was 14 – I fell in love with it and my dream was that I wanted to be able to come to London just for one week in my life – it all seemed so impossible to reach back then. And now I have been living here for almost 20 years, I have dual citizenship and I can use English every day but teach, help and support others in a professional capacity – and through my apprenticeship I achieved my highest qualification: a foundation degree.
