Apprenticeship week 8th - 14th February 2021
National Apprenticeship Week 2021 runs from the 8th – 14th February 2021.
It is the perfect opportunity to support our students to find out more about apprenticeships and to participate in some of the free activities that have been prepared for you.
What is an apprenticeship?
Well that is a question that many students don't really understand, but simply it is a way to learn a trade/career and get paid whilst you do this. Many assume that apprenticeships are only for 'trade' employment such as hairdressing, plumbing, electricians, mechanic etc. but this is a myth.
Become an apprentice (apprenticeships.gov.uk)
Many career pathways now have apprenticeship routes and the National Apprenticeship week is all about raising the profile of the endless possibilities that apprenticeships offer.
National Apprenticeship Week Activities.
Over the course of this week you will be able to access a wide range of resources to help discover the range and role of apprenticeships and to help decide if an apprenticeship is a potential career pathway for you.
The following activity pack has lots of resources to help you learn about apprenticeships and the endless opportunities that are available to you:
Test your apprenticeship knowledge.
The Amazing Apprenticeship organisation has created a quiz to help you review your knowledge and understanding about apprenticeships, traineeships and T-Levels. You can access these quizzes and test yourself on the following website:
apprenticeships quiz (amazingapprenticeships.com
Which employers offer Apprenticeships?
Apprenticeships are offered by a massive range of organisations from small, local businesses to multinational organisations covering a vast range of employment sectors so it is often worth looking through company profiles to find out what different organisations offer for example a large engineering company may also offer apprenticeships in areas as diverse as accountancy, law, HR and Business admin as well as traditional engineering opportunities.
Explore the following link and see which of these companies you recognise, were you aware of all the opportunities that these organisations offered and if interested you may also want to apply (but check the eligibility criteria first):
Vacancy Snapshot - Amazing Apprenticeships
The Amazing Apprenticeship portal only shows apprenticeships available with those companies listed and there are thousands of other apprenticeship vacancies available via the governments dedicated apprenticeship vacancy website:
Find an apprenticeship (findapprenticeship.service.gov.uk)
You can also apply filters to narrow the search down for example to see if there are any local apprenticeships that you could apply for.
What are apprenticeships really like?
The best placed people to give you advice on what apprenticeships are really like are those that are either completing their own apprenticeship programmes or those that have recently completed an apprenticeship programme. As a result the Amazing Apprenticeship organisation have commissioned a range of short video clips that record the daily life of a variety of individuals who are actively completing their apprenticeship programmes. These video clips will help build an understanding of what it is really like to be an apprentice.
Watch a couple of the videos that you think are careers that you may be interested in and see of is what you expected, did you discover anything that surprised you?
Meet real apprentices - Amazing Apprenticeships
Subject information
Every subject that you take will allow you an opportunity to access a career linked to that subject. Here are just some of the ideas that you can engage in:
Subject fact sheet
Subject Information for teachers
In order to support subject teachers additional resources can be found here to provide specific information linking subjects to apprenticeship opportunities:
Subject Apprenticeship resource
Find out more
Another useful website is the apprenticeship website Become an apprentice (apprenticeships.gov.uk)
TEES VALLEY CAREERS Resources pages
As always the Tees Valley Careers Service also have launched two social media sites that are jam packed with loads of additional information and resources. Those can be accessed here:
INSTAGRAM PAGE:
Tees Valley Careers (@teesvalleycareers) • Instagram photos and videos
FACEBOOK PAGE:
Tees Valley Careers - Home | Facebook
There are also the monthly apprenticeship newsletter and resource packs, which are also on the career main page. Here is The most recent edition (Jan 2021)
Apprenticeship resource pack Jan 2021