What can you gain from doing an apprenticeship?

We caught up with a former CCCG Apprentice to find out about how her apprenticeship enhanced different aspects of her life.

There are many on-paper benefits to doing an apprenticeship: no student debt, practical training, good qualifications, networking opportunities and so on. But what does an Apprentice really gain off-the-page?

We interviewed former apprentice Libby Ellis to find out about what she felt she’d gained from doing an apprenticeship with Capital City College Group (CCCG).

Libby has worked at Surrey Council for the last 16 years, working her way up in various Facilities Management (FM) roles. She recently completed the Facilities Management Level 4 Apprenticeship, which includes the Level 4 Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management (IWFM) qualification.

Trying something new

Libby: My colleague Tara, who had previously completed an apprenticeship in Business Management, saw this one and she said I had to do it and that she was going to do it too. She encouraged me, having one apprenticeship under her belt, that this was a good thing for me to do, and that we’d do it together. 

Learning about a different side of the industry

Libby: I thought it was time to brush up on the skills that I’ve learned on the job and to get a better understanding of the overall picture of FM. 

Working for the county council, I see FM in a different way to those in private industry. We’re not making money, we’re supporting our colleagues so that they can do their job. So it was quite interesting for me to see the business side of FM. The experience I had before was limited to what I had seen in the council, so now I can see the bigger picture of FM and it just gave me wider knowledge. 

Gaining a recognised certification

Libby: I had the experience and I didn’t have anything official to show for it, so I like the fact that at the end of it, you get certified. You can demonstrate that this is the standard that you have now met and this is the standard that you’ve been educated to. 

Developing an expanded view of the field

Libby: Doing the apprenticeship opened my eyes up to a much bigger world of facilities management and the opportunities that were out there – such as different roles that some of the other cohorts were doing and some of the technology that other people had access to that I didn’t. It was a steep learning curve to begin with.

Receiving support from colleagues

Libby: To do an apprenticeship, you have to have an organization and a manager who is going to support you. You’re going to need the time to attend all the training sessions and do the assignments. At the time, my line manager said, “If it’s in your diary Lib, as long as I know what you’re doing, I’m happy.”

At one point I met with the energy team. I had an hour of their time where they walked me through energy management. If they hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t have been able to answer all the questions in the assignment to the best of my knowledge and that would have affected my overall grade and understanding of what was going on. They linked me to a couple of websites which I subscribed to and I now get energy newsletters. 

Gaining a wider range of resources

Libby: I was learning outside of the apprenticeship training, attending webinars and things like that just to expand my knowledge. It opened my eyes to a world of different parts of FM,  different ways to access information and where to subscribe to channels and TED Talks – things that I’d never considered before.

Accessing education through remote learning

Libby: I work full time and I’m a mum – there aren’t enough hours in the day to attend college as well. Because the apprenticeship training was completely remote, I never actually went into the college. If I’d had to have driven or got a train to a college, with that extra time that it puts into the day, it certainly wouldn’t have been possible to do that for two years.

I could be in the office working, have my two-hour tutorial, and then carry on working. That flexibility really helped.

Building a new approach to learning

Libby: I built learning into my routine. When I took my son on a Saturday morning to his morning activity, because of COVID we weren’t allowed into the sports hall. We all had to sit in our cars, so I just made sure that I had a cup of tea and a relevant TED Talk lined up to watch while he was doing his activity. 

Joining more communities

Libby: I signed up to do loads more training with work and joined communities like the women’s network, the disability network, the carer’s network and the parent network because they have webinars and seminars to go to as well.

Surrey Council partnered with a charity working for period dignity. That was another webinar I joined because it was going to affect how we manage things within facilities management, such as where we put the PHS bins, access to period products and even the language you use around that sort of thing.

Growing in confidence

There are all sorts of things that I just wouldn’t have had my eyes open to if I wasn’t doing the apprenticeship. I just felt like I could put myself forward for more things because it was going to help me learn and develop. I think it gave me a lot more confidence, which I wasn’t really expecting as an outcome. I expected to learn. I didn’t expect it to give me more confidence.

Using the apprenticeship to land a new role

Libby: I applied for a new role as a Business Improvement Manager. I used all the knowledge that I’d gained through doing the apprenticeship in my interview. I demonstrated the things that I knew were needed like the contract management elements of the apprenticeship. Although I hadn’t done it, I theoretically could explain it and apply it to a scenario. I used the things that I learned through doing the apprenticeship in my interview and was successful. I’ve been in my new role since July.

Catching the learning bug

Libby: In the immediate future, I’m going to do the NEC4 Contract Management training because that’s going to be a large part of my job. I did have a little peruse on the apprenticeship website to see if there was anything on there and there are a couple of Business Improvement apprenticeships that I quite like the look of. I think I need a bit more time to get into this role to work out what I really need, but another apprenticeship is definitely a consideration to make. 

“I expected to learn. I didn’t expect it to give me more confidence.”

Whether you’re drawn to Accounting and Bookkeeping, Health and Social Care, Catering and Hospitality or Construction and Plumbing – take a look at our apprenticeships and see if there is training that can help you fulfil your potential!

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