My name is Archie Dickens and I am currently on a Level 3 Team Leader and Supervisor apprenticeship with EDLounge. I started this apprenticeship with EDLounge on the 4th of May 2021. I have a maximum of 18 months to complete the apprenticeship and I am making good progress towards my end point assessment.
I first started working for EDClass in 2017 when I took the decision to drop out of the sixth form as I realised that it wasn’t for me. I was never the most academic person within the school and I thought that getting myself into the world of work would be the best route to take.
I started working at EDClass as a Business Admin apprentice with Sheffield College three years ago. After I finished my Business Admin apprenticeship I then decided to move onto the Team Leader as I thought it would be the natural progression route to higher management.
I am now managing one of the products of EDClass called EDQuals, within this role I apply many management traits that I am learning throughout my apprenticeship and I feel that I am doing well within this role.
Why did I decide to do an apprenticeship?
I always knew after my GCSEs that an apprenticeship was for me as I wanted to get into the world and work and I feel like I learn the best when I am doing something. At school, business was one of my favourite subjects and the one I achieved the best grades in so I thought that taking on an apprenticeship that could get my foot in the door within a thriving business would be the best-case scenario.
In my personal opinion, if you can get an apprenticeship straight after your GCSEs that allow you to progress to your dream job then why would you not do it? I would only ever consider A levels and University if I needed them to achieve my careers goals. The fact that I can earn while I learn is the biggest benefit of an apprenticeship to me.
What have I learnt and enjoyed the most?
As I have already mentioned above, the best part of the apprenticeship for me is that learning while on the job. This type of learning suits me the best and the hands-on approach allows me to gather the best knowledge from my mentors.
One of the biggest things I’ve learnt so far from this apprenticeship has to be project management, this was something that I didn’t have much knowledge about before. I now understand how many different aspects there are within project management from reporting and data analytics to planning from the start.
My next steps
After I finish this apprenticeship my plan is to move on to another and to keep doing this for as long as I can. As of yet, I am undecided if I want to do a Level 5 management apprenticeship or a Level 4 Cyber Security.
