Work placement to apprenticeship
When my time at Devizes Sixth form came to an end in June last year, I had no clue that I wanted to do.
Having studied Business, Psychology and English Language, I started out by looking at apprenticeships online. I couldn’t find one that really interested me but wanted to do something with my time. My mum, who works in the Aster Group Contact Centre, suggested doing work experience. After a quick chat with Holly Powell, research and innovation, my work experience was scheduled for a couple of days throughout the month.
I didn’t know what to expect or what I was going to get out of the work experience, but it turned out to be so worth it.
On my first day, Holly gave me an overview of the business and we went through my work experience schedule. Holly gave me more of an insight into her role and she even invited me along to her meetings to get me used to office life and meet some new people. I was even treated to a Dominoes at lunch which was both unexpected and great!
The afternoon revolved around recruitment and interviews where I spent time with Lynn Lovelock, people services, and Sam Eldridge, learning and development, who gave me some recruitment wisdom and tested me on my interview skills which really boosted my confidence.
The thing I enjoyed most about my work experience was sitting with the different teams, this included business support, the people team, PFI, neighbourhoods, facilities and the contact centre. It gave me such a good insight into the business and the different types of career paths I could take.
As my work experience came to an end I saw that the time PFI was advertising an apprentice role which after learning so much about the organisation I thought would be great for me.
I decided to apple for the role and thanks to the advice Lynn and Sam gave me, I felt relaxed and confident throughout the interview. I was so happy when Bernadette Fitzmaurice, PFI manager, called to offer me the role.
I am glad my mum suggested doing work experience as I think it boosted my chances of getting the apprentice role.
I’ve suggested to some of my friends that they should do work experience as you just never know all the different jobs that our out there. I had no clue what I was interested in before finding more out about Aster and now I have started a great career and love my job.
A big thank you to everyone involved in helping out with my work experience and apprenticeship.
#LoveWhereYouWork
Back to latest blog listings
