After a decade in the building industry, I decided I needed a change.
Computers were a hobby of mine and I wanted to turn this into a career. When I started working, I didn’t even realise that this career existed. I had to take a leap of faith and commit to taking 4 years out to go to university, the only route open to me to get into software development at the time.
Meanwhile, I still had a mortgage to pay and all the other commitments that go along with it. It would have been fantastic if I’d been able to get paid to go to work and come out with a recognised qualification at the end of it. Instead, I had to balance the stress of a degree and mortgage, and I have the student debt and thinning hair to prove it!
But that’s why I’m excited that there are several new apprenticeship roles open to apply for here at Companies House. It’s great to be able to offer a life-changing experience to people, regardless of their age, disability, gender, race, religion, sexuality or upbringing.
These new digital apprentice roles will allow us to bring fresh and diverse perspectives in-house that we can all learn from. These new people may never have considered a career in IT, but now they have an amazing opportunity.
What we offer to the apprentices
We'll help the apprentices build a career in development of their own design. This will be the first steps taken into a new and rewarding profession in which they will be in the driving seat. We'll offer them all the tools they need to succeed.
We'll offer good blend of academic learning and on-the-job practical learning. This is an opportunity that you wouldn’t get with a regular degree, where the focus is completely academic.
At Companies House, we're always keen to provide our workforce with the tools and support needed to succeed. And it’s no different for our apprentices.
We’re a team of people who are dedicated to working and encouraging others to do their best. We’re also open and engaged people who will listen and encourage our apprentices to achieve their greatest potential.
What the apprentices offer to us
I look forward to the apprentices bringing a high level of enthusiasm and a buzz with them. Bringing a new and fresh outlook and being more open to change, which in turn should rub off on our developers.
The learning achieved in college can be brought back to Companies House and cascaded down to the rest of the team. And we hope that the apprentices’ learning approach will promote a more academic environment for everyone.
The ideal apprentices will be more open to trying out new ideas, have a real thirst for knowledge and be keen to explore new ways of doing things. We hope they’ll be able to encourage others to step outside their comfort zone, so that the phrase “But we’ve always done it this way” becomes a thing of the past.
The apprentices will have an inquisitive and questioning mindset, because they’re keen to learn and will not have preconceived ideas.
Overall, our new apprentices will play an integral part of our digital teams to ensure we continue to meet our objectives, and enable us to provide exceptional services to our customers.
Thoughts for the future
A blend of people with different levels of experience will bring a better and more diverse outlook to Companies House.
I’m excited to meet and work alongside our new team members, and hopefully help towards providing them with an awesome experience. The people we recruit today will be the lifeblood of this organisation in the future.
If you've found your way here and are still reading at this point, you should definitely consider applying for our digital apprenticeship roles.
