The Apprenticeship Guide and The Future of the High Street

Apprenticeship champions THE APPRENTICESHIP GUIDE

Perhaps it is just the older generations still thinking it needs to explode the myth that there is more to life than university – and why not try an apprenticeship? And then wrestling with the doubt about whether apprenticeships are really a viable alternative. Speaking to young people who have recently passed that point where school ends and something else begins, there does not seem to have been the same insecurity about either route. The question is more, what is the best choice for me? “At the end of my GCSEs I went to Hartpury to do a Level 3 diploma in animal management,” said Matt Hall, 20, who was not short of options or interests. “I had been interested in photography at school, and was considering a graphic design course at Gloucestershire College or SGS College, where I had a place.” Perhaps it is that Mr Hall, who works for Moose Marketing and PR which puts together this very magazine, also has a more diverse group of friends than the rest of us managed.

“Everyone followed a completely different path. One became a chef, one went into teacher training, one to Renishaw as an engineering apprentice, one is still nannying around the world, another training to be a nurse,” said Mr Hall, when I asked how his friends coped with the ‘university or not?’ question. His colleague, Beth Winter, was one of those who watched friends go off on the university route – with mixed emotions. “It was a difficult time, and I could have gone to university, but I knew it was not for me,” said Beth, who filled a year with what on reflection became a treasure-trove of experience doing everything from work placements to Prince's Trust programme.

BethWinter

It was this that eventually led her to the door of Moose and in front of Mark Owen (yes, the editor). Not planning to take on another apprentice at the time he began by extending his new charge’s work placement before being so impressed he put an apprenticeship in marketing on the table. “A lot of my friends are coming towards the end of their time at university and they are looking at me and wish they

George Ezra, and Matt Hall. Credit Mikal Ludlow Photography