Previously, I have talked about the history of apprenticeships and why doing an apprenticeship is a great career choice, but today I would like to reflect on how the Jacksons’ apprentice landscape has evolved recently.
Over the last 15 months, we’ve seen six apprentices qualify and offered permanent roles in our firm. These roles range from finance assistant to probate paralegal and everything in between. Three of those apprentices started out working on reception, and were later placed into legal teams, where they are now permanently based and our finance trainee is currently undertaking a Level 4 AAT qualification.
We have recruited an additional four apprentices, all working towards a level 3 in business administration. These apprentices work in our busy conveyancing department in Stockton and Newcastle, two of them have already been offered permanent roles for when they complete their apprenticeships in a couple of months.
We said a sad, but supportive, goodbye to two apprentices who qualified, but decided to take completely different career paths (into the NHS and Camp America) and we wish them all the very best.
As a management team, we have discussed introducing level 7 solicitor apprenticeships, which will work alongside our very popular Trainee Solicitor programme. Nothing has been finalised yet, but we do hope this is something we can offer in future.
It’s important for us to allow our apprenticeship offering to grow and shift organically. There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach as we continually evaluate our business requirements and create apprentice opportunities where appropriate.
It’s great to see more and more companies getting on board with apprenticeships. There are lots of benefits to employing an apprentice, but for us, the opportunity to grow and develop our own talent, as well as offering support to young people in the local community – and all with bags of funding, grants and support from our learning provider.
In my career, I have worked with, and supported, many apprentices and it’s great to be able to follow their progression and see their success.
But let’s be real, not all apprenticeships do work out, in my experience it’s usually because the apprentice is in the wrong job.
Honestly? There are not many of us who can hold their hand up and say they knew exactly what they wanted to do at 16/17 years old. I’ve had difficult conversations with apprentices who thought they were in their dream careers but were just not making the grade (either with their academic or practical progress), but a quick switch to another apprenticeship and they were winning Apprentice of the Year (this actually happened).
Whether you are looking for an apprenticeship at Jacksons or just in general, all apprenticeships opportunities are advertised here.
Specific information about Jacksons’ apprenticeships can be found here but if you have any questions or just want an informal chat, please call me on 01642 356500.
We will be introducing all our apprentices (old and new) on our social media this week – so please look out for our posts and say hi to our brilliant team.
