Celebrating the Success of our Apprentices
We believe it’s important to celebrate the success of our apprentices after they’ve completed their programmes. Sarah and Charlotte joined us at our Birthday event where they were presented with their certificates. Here are Sarah’s thoughts of her learner journey with Blue Sky:
I started the course, as at my work we had changes within our department, which meant a role was advertised for an office manager. As I had been responsible within my role, for running the department and training colleagues and the development of the growing demands of the department, within the 2 years of taking over for Maternity cover, I decided to apply for the role.
I was unsuccessful in my request and this knocked my confidence. I realised I had to update my Qualifications, to ensure I was able to provide evidence that I had the skills I had worked hard for, also as having had previous experience of Management and administrator roles, this would enable me to add the skills together.
I found out about the Business Administration Level 3 Apprenticeship from a new colleague who had started the course. I wasn’t sure if I was able to apply as I just had my 50th Birthday, but this did not cause any problems.
While completing the course, I have found I have been able to re-develop my knowledge and skills and also challenge myself to new processes and thinking within the Administration environment. I had to redo my Maths, which I found hard and frustrating at times, as it had been a long time since doing fractions again.
The support I received from Blue Sky was amazing and when I had my down moments, just a phone call or email kept me on track to complete the exams (especially Fractions!!) They understood what my weak points were and helped me overcome any issues. I found I was struggling with doing everything on the computer, so changed it so I had some paper copies to work on which was perfect.
I was very proud of my achievements in passing the course and have since changed roles and now work within the accounts department as Credit Control – Sales Ledger and process weekly payroll using clock card system. I would have never thought I would be able to achieve all I have, it makes me smile and feel very proud of myself.
For me this has been a journey of rediscovering my confidence and allowing myself the opportunity to try something new and test myself to new challenges at work and at home. I would very much like to do another course at some stage, maybe within the accounts area to see what I can achieve.
Sarah Keeling – Aspall Cyder
Published 28/07/2017 & Filed in Blue Sky Blog