It's National Apprenticeship Week, a much-deserved and dedicated time to recognise the valuable impact apprenticeships have on individuals, businesses and the wider economy.
Here at IT Lab, apprenticeships are an important part of our culture which focuses on people. We take great pride in our ability to nurture and develop talent!
The goal over the year-long scheme is to train IT Lab apprentices up into 1st Line Support Engineers and to be able to offer them permanent employment with us here at the Lab .
We currently have the wonderful Mahidur Rahman, Andrei Netos, Jayan Ellis, Thomas Slee and Ahmed Hoang working through the IT apprenticeship. This involves gaining practical experience here at IT Lab and also on our client sites. Our apprentices attend regular training with their training provider, Just IT, and complete the various certificates that make up the apprenticeship. We are also lucky to have Harmony Morgan, within our team as a Business Administration Apprentice.
"IT Lab are exceptionally passionate about investing in the future of young people, which includes their development and integration in our mainstream support services, and one of the ways we do this is via our Apprenticeship programme," says Karen Thornton, Director of Support Services.
"We are proud to have a high success rate of apprentices progressing into permanent engineer roles within IT Lab following their 12-month curriculum. Our existing apprentices are superb, with each of them bringing a positive dynamic and energy to the team."
IT Lab Apprentices 2015. From left to right Jayan, Thomas, Andrei, Mahid and Harmony
We are very proud as a number apprentices have recently moved into a 1st line support role, highlighting the strength and success of our Apprenticeship programme. A big congratulations to Shimul Asgur, Mark Evans, Bradley De. Bono and David White who over the last few months have all progressed into these support roles.
David, who successfully progressed from the programme in 2014 into a 1st-line engineer role, was just recently nominated for a Just IT Apprenticeship Award. Although he didn’t reach the final stage – his nomination is an exceptional achievement.
At the apprentice level what we really look for is a passion for all things IT – we tend to ask applicants if they are the person friends and family call on when they need help solving a tech issue or even if they have ever built their own computer.
All IT Lab apprentices come through Just IT, our preferred apprenticeship supplier but just like any other applicant, they go through our recruitment process. Once they are registered with Just IT they are encouraged to apply via Big Talent, our recruitment arm’s test site. Phone interviews and in-person interviews follow.
For more information, contact our talent team on 0333 241 7689.