How to Level Up with apprenticeships - Benefits of adult apprenticeships #NAW2022

My name is Selven Armoogum. I have developed an early interest in hospitality in Mauritius where I am from. I am a husband, father and currently a Learning Consultant at Umbrella Training and have over 25 years of experience in the hospitality industry. 

I started as an apprentice chef at La Pirogue, a prestigious 4-star hotel in Mauritius.

My experience as an apprentice chef there was undoubtedly transformed with the opening of Sugar Beach Hotel which is a 5-star hotel. My experience expanded in different resort hotels in Indian Ocean on Reunion Island and The Seychelle where I developed invaluable skills in customer service and strong foundation skill to work with people of other nationalities and cultures. 

In Poland, I had the unique opportunities of gaining a lot of practical skills and theoretical knowledge while training adults.  

“You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step”, Martin Luther King JR.

I spent the past 18 years working in London in hospitality industry performing various management levels in five start hotels such as Sofitel St James, Savoy, Berkeley and three of Firmdale boutique hotels. 

I believed apprenticeship could be an important step in progressing my career. Besides numerous other courses, I engaged and completed three apprenticeship levels and most recently I have just completed Level 5 Operations Manager qualification with Umbrella.

Since embarking on apprenticeship, the experience and skills I learnt and cautiously put into practice, have moulded me into an industrious professional that I am today. Apprenticeship is a route which is more engaging, more effective and a way more relevant to build skills and knowledge while working.  

While there is generally a minimum age of 16 for apprenticeships, there is no firm upper limit for such work and educational opportunities.

For those like myself who may be supporting families, paying rent or mortgages or who are faced with time management responsibilities, it could be a potential challenge. The flexibility of apprenticeship while in a full-time job and learning has still given me a good work and life balance. 

I did have a period of adjustment in getting back to the learning mode, as being an older apprentice who have been out of school for a while and with English not my first language.

I felt that those who were younger and had just completed high school or university had an advantage as they still had there learning mode and had better experience with new technology. 

In fact, there is the benefit of life experience as since having already had some career experience, I was better prepared to fully engage in my apprenticeship.

Both life/work experience and apprenticeship helped me develop everything learned while adding new set of skills and theoretical knowledge. My experience and my apprenticeship have given me confidence to work towards my goal. It has also helped me to develop new and existing products and projects. 

Apprenticeship has not only helped me with knowledge and skills to advance me in my hospitality career, it taught me to understand my values better and the ones of others.