It's Apprenticeship Awareness Week (3rd to 7th Feb 2020), and we’d like to introduce you to Taylor who began an Apprenticeship with SRSB and RSS in May 2019. He is working to obtain a Level 3 Infrastructure Technician and the Apprenticeship will run for a year which will hopefully lead to Taylor being kept on afterwards. Taylor explains “I had been unemployed since January, so I think Apprenticeships are the best route to work for younger people.

"They allow us to move away from the more student part time roles such as working in a shop to being able to start from the bottom in a role that offers all the training needed to move up the ladder, while also providing critical work experience that young people are needing more and more these days as the job market grows more competitive. There is a large issue in the graduate job market where young people see themselves unable to find employment and more often than not have to start at the bottom and put in the time all over again. Apprenticeships allow this crucial first step into the job market and allow the apprentice to be in a secure career path in only one or two years from starting from no experience.” 

Taylor also finds that the nature of our organisation allows him time to work on his apprenticeship projects while also being able to help with any IT issues that arise during the day. And with three sites to look after there is lots of variety.

He adds “It’s great experience; I get to work with all aspects of an IT role including help desk troubleshooting to working on server problems and network issues. We have a variety of different infrastructure to learn from including on-premises servers and virtual ones, Wi-Fi solutions, cloud infrastructure from our Office 365 and database work. I have only been working in IT for 8 months but have encountered a wide range of issues and problems to work on that you can’t learn from a lecture, the only way to work is hands on!”

And as to the charity sector in which he has chosen to work “Working for a charity is very rewarding as part of my job can involve assisting visually impaired clients with their tech problems that they were struggling with. Being able to assist Darren with setting up a client to allow them to use their devices or providing a quick fix to a client’s laptop brings even more of a reward as it is such a help in their lives that allows them to continue having their independence.”

Taylor has fitted in really well and is a valued member of our team. He calmly deals with any technical issues that arise and we look forward to congratulating him on the achievement of his qualification!