Business School apprenticeships boost careers

This week is National Apprenticeship Week 2022. The theme for this year’s National Apprenticeship Week – which runs from February 7-13 – is ‘Build the Future’, focussing on how apprenticeships can benefit individuals, organisations and local communities. At the University of Salford Business School apprenticeships are available through many degree programmes and courses link directly to the practical skills provided by an apprenticeship, leaving you in a great position to go for the new role or career change.

Clare Duff began undertaking her apprenticeship in January 2020 after 11 years of working for the Salford Local Authority, she wanted to utilise her knowledge and skillset from 10+ years’ experience and develop it in a way that would assist her in evolving her career and develop new opportunities. She has already gained a promotion into a new role thanks to the course.

She said: “I’ve always been open to challenging myself and developing our job roles further and after being advised by the university, I knew this was the right thing for me.”

Clare’s role within the Salford Local Authority centres around child services. Completing her apprenticeship alongside her full time work allowed her to continuously evaluate practices and frameworks within her current role and led directly to her promotion.

She added: “I was given the opportunity to assist in a neighbouring authority to do some improvement work with them, this allowed me to get involved with lots of additional work and demonstrate my dedication to the apprenticeship. Following this experience I submitted a Business Case which secured investment in a new post holder in my current authority, specifically focussed on improvement.

“It’s been very exciting, I can see how I’m utilising my skills, tools and techniques that I’ve developed through the apprenticeship. I’ve been able to directly link my apprenticeship to my work.”

Clare has described her experience as giving her invaluable knowledge and allowing her to navigate through her career by providing a huge number of opportunities to be able to gain access to areas she might have otherwise overlooked.

“As soon as I began my apprenticeship, every opportunity with work was seen as a great piece of evidence to add to my portfolio for the 20% out of hours work. It opened so many doors because I wanted to be a part of every meeting, which led to new areas and themes within the workplace that I could explore.”

“It is sometimes difficult to balance the workload of doing an apprenticeship alongside full time work and a family, but that’s a skill in itself, and its definitely worth it, and you do have a support system around you.”

Paul Ward, Director of apprenticeships at the University of Salford said:  "As well as boosting productivity, apprenticeships can also help companies develop their workforce.

“Recent industry research suggests that 77% of employers found that taking on apprentices helped to make their organisations more competitive.

“With many companies facing critical skills shortages, apprenticeships provide employers with a great opportunity to invest in the recruitment of new talent into the business. Through recruiting and training apprentices, employers can develop people in a way that promotes the specific skills required by industry.”