Épisodes

  • The Institute talks...about apprenticeships in construction and the built environment

    The Institute talks...about apprenticeships in construction and the built environment
    Apr 6 2022
    In this episode of The Institute talks, we talk about the exciting construction route review and the various areas that are being improved, including health and safety, sustainability and much more. In this podcast, our host Neil Jones, is joined by route panel members Ruth Devine and Paul Skerry as well as two apprentices, Joe McGilley, a civil engineering apprentice and Shannon Maine,  bricklaying apprentice. Ruth and Paul explore areas of the construction route review that are improving, and the vast apprenticeships available within the route. They focus on key areas, such as mental health and modern methods in construction, and how it will help the industry as well as apprentices. The two apprentices, also share on how their apprenticeship experience has been, and ways they think the route can be better. Shannon also highlights her ambition to encourage more women to be apart of the industry. Transcript Neil Jones Hello. I'm Neil Jones, senior product manager here at the Institute and your host today for this podcast about our recent construction review. I'm joined by two panel members, Ruth Devine and Paul Skerry, as well as two apprentices, Joe McGilley and Shannon Maine. Welcome, everybody, Would you like to introduce yourselves? Ruth Devine I'm Ruth Devine. I'm managing director of SJD Associates, electrical contractor based in Milton Keynes. I've been on the panel for five years now. Paul Skerry Hi I’m Paul Skerry, early years careers and professional development manager for BAM in the UK. I've been with the panel for about six months now. Joe McGilly I'm Joe McGilly. I'm an apprentice civil engineer working for ACORN, currently based out of Bedford. I've been in the industry for about four years now. Shannon Maine Hi, I'm on Shannon Maine, a bricklaying apprentice, and I started it last October. Neil Jones Thanks. I'm grateful you can all join me today. So to start with, a bit of background on the review. So, there are almost 100 apprenticeship standards in the construction route as well as technical qualifications. And the route review is basically an opportunity for us to take a strategic look across the route to ensure that our occupational map is correct, that the occupational standards on it remain relevant, and that the occupations and skills match the needs of employers both now and in the future. So, it's a bit of a stocktake and there are obvious benefits in doing so, but we also have a statutory obligation to do so at regular intervals around every three years or so. As part of the review, the Institute's Employer Panel for Construction developed a set of key principles and characteristics which we will talk about today that represent key concepts that employers are asked to consider for future inclusion in occupational standards. These are things like sustainability, digital skills, mental health, building safety, amongst others. So, without further ado, if I start with an open question for everybody, how do you think the review will benefit apprentices, employers and training providers in the future? Ruth Devine I think it's a good opportunity just to see where we are and what skills needed for the future. So, a lot's happened in the last five years and many of these standards were around before the institute existed. So, it's a good opportunity to see where are we? What's going on? The industry issues like the building safety agenda, competence, the EDI agenda, trying to make the industry fair or equal for all. And it's a good opportunity here to look at the content and make sure that the Apprentice of the future meet the needs of employers. Paul Skerry I think that's something that now we've moved through during very challenging times. The last two years in particular have been a particular challenge. The fact is, outside of the control of many within construction and we've learnt a lot from that, we've learnt to work in different ways but has had to face some things like mental health and a lot of things. And we're starting to see that we need to move into new areas, things always changing. The institution has done a lot of work with its Green Apprenticeship panel. There are changes there and certainly in terms of building safety, we've sadly seen a bias in the UK to things like racket review and needing our engineers to be much more aware of safety in buildings and things like that. Neil Jones Great, and I mentioned principles and characteristics before. Are there any for route that particularly stood out to you? Ruth Devine Well, I've been involved the Lighthouse charity now for nearly two years and understanding more about the mental health landscape in construction, I really think it's fantastic the Institute and the panel members and employers do appreciate that we've got some way to go to improve mental health. I think this is an opportunity to build in skills like resilience, emotional wellbeing and just improve the outcomes for the industry really and make it a ...
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    23 min
  • The Institute talks...about becoming a paramedic apprentice

    The Institute talks...about becoming a paramedic apprentice
    Feb 10 2022
    In this episode of The Institute talks, we talk about the invaluable experience gained through a paramedic apprenticeship and the range of progression opportunities available. In this podcast, our host Fariba Carr is joined by Justin Honey-Jones, a senior paramedic and a member of our Health and Science route panel. He is also an associate lecturer in Paramedic Science at Anglia Ruskin University. Justin speaks about his own experience from routine calls to the bigger emergencies such as Grenfell Tower and how to decide if an apprenticeship is the best path and where to apply. He also mentions how apprentices on average gain 1600 to 1500 hours of front-line clinical experience per year, whereas university students will have 750 hours per year of frontline experience. All that experience allows apprentices to see the whole system, and as Justin stated: “The paramedic qualification is just the start of a wonderful journey, but it's a golden ticket and it's what you do with that ticket that kind of opens up your path and your aspirations.” Transcript Fariba Carr Hello. I'm sorry, Fariba Carr, head of membership, communities and events at the Institute and your host for this podcast. Today for this Employer podcast. I’m delighted to be joined by Justin Honey Jones, a senior paramedic and a member of our Health and Science Route Panel. Welcome, Justin.   Justin Honey Jones Thanks for having me, Fariba.   Fariba Carr So, give yourself a little bit of an introduction.   Justin Honey Jones I'm Justin, I'm a senior paramedic with east of England Ambulance Service, and since the first of January this year, I started as a clinical educator with St John Ambulance. And also, I'm an associate lecturer in Paramedic Science at Anglia Ruskin University.   Fariba Carr Thank you, I'm so glad that you could join me today. So, let's get started, and perhaps you could tell me a little bit about how you found your way to being a paramedic. What made you choose this profession?   Justin Honey Jones To be honest, there's a few key events really throughout my life, and I've ever since a young child, it's all I ever wanted to do was to be a paramedic. I mean, there was no specific reason. But more more events that happened. I mean, 911 was a key event. I remember being the age of 15, I was doing my work experience and I was at the Fire Service Training College in South Wales. I remember literally over lunch seeing the tragic events that happened at 911. And it was the first experience of seeing quite a large-scale incident of firefighters, paramedics, police officers all working together. It was key public services and I had quite a significant impact and that was also linked with work I was doing as an army cadet at the time outside school. We were learning about first aid and developing first aid competitions and ultimately led to my sort of started my career really as an army reservist with the Royal Army Medical Corps, and I trained as a combat medical technician. That’s when I started having my first interactions with paramedics and nurses and doctors, and it kind of cemented my career. I knew that's what I wanted to do.   Fariba Carr Thanks. That was really interesting to hear what inspired you. Do you feel that the career that you've had since then has lived up to what you thought you were going to be doing? Is it is it different in any ways?   Justin Honey Jones You know, it's really interesting. If I think back when I was a child, you know, what you think of a paramedic was what you would see on casualty or E.R. or those type of medical programs. But it's nothing like the TV shows. To actually be a paramedic, you start to see that, you know, it's anything and everything in life. Colleagues and I will frequently say the job is about the circle of life. I remember one of my most significant shifts was when I started in the morning and we delivered this beautiful baby boy who came into the world at 7:00 in the morning, in the back of back of a taxi, which was quite an experience, if you could imagine starting the day and no coffee early. It was quite a shock with this event, and we attended numerous calls throughout the day. And then sadly, we finished off the end of the day and we had a patient that was an older patient that sadly went into a cardiac arrest and didn't survive. And that full shift is a classic example of the anything and everything that you can get as a paramedic. And that's what makes it a wonderful job is you don't know what you're going to do and you have to be prepared for literally anything and everything. It certainly keeps you on your toes, and it never disappoints.   Fariba Carr That's really interesting to hear about that kind of span of activity that you're going to have from one day to another. My 16-year-old and Justin, I know, you know, this is really interested in this and I asked her a little bit about why she wanted to do it and the questions that she might have. So, some of...
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    33 min
  • The Institute talks...about ‘raising the standards: the apprentice guide to quality apprenticeships‘

    The Institute talks...about ‘raising the standards: the apprentice guide to quality apprenticeships‘
    Sep 13 2021
    In this episode of The Institute talks, we talk about the new guidance created by our apprentice panel, ‘raising the standards’. In the podcast, our host Jonathan Mitchell, Deputy Director at the Institute was joined by Jamilah Simpson, former digital marketing apprentice at Google, Dillion Jones, electrician apprentice at Derry Building Service. Launched by the Institute’s apprentice panel, the ‘raising the stands’ guidance sets out what to expect during an apprenticeship, welfare and wellbeing considerations, and recommendations for how training programmes can be tailored to give apprentices the best possible experience.  Transcript Jonathan Mitchell Hello, I'm Jonathan Mitchell. I'm a deputy director at the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education, and I'm your host for this podcast and today we're launching the raising the standards. Best practice guidance that's been written by The Apprentice panel for training providers and employers and also apprentices. To show them what really great looks like in apprenticeships and hopefully extend that really great practice that we've all seen in loads and loads of areas across the whole apprenticeship landscape. Today I'm joined by three members of the Institute's apprentice panel, they are Jamila Dillon and Amelia. So welcome Jamilah Dillon and Amelia. Would you like to introduce yourself? Jamilah Simpson Sure. Hi everyone, I'm Jamilah. I'm a former Google Digital marketing apprentice. I'm now the programs associate at Multiverse, where we're building an outstanding alternative to university and corporate training through apprenticeships. My role aims to provide apprentices with opportunities that lie outside their apprenticeship qualification, and day-to-day roles for personal and professional development. I will soon be moving into the creative industry to become a graphic design freelancer. I've always wanted to pursue a career in the creative world. So I thought now was the time to make that change and try something new. Jonathan Mitchell That sounds amazing Jamila thanks so much. And Dillon over to you. Tell us a bit about yourself and what apprenticeship you're doing, what you're doing at work at the moment. Dillon Jones Hi everyone, I'm Dillon. I completed a four-year Level 3 apprenticeship to become an electrician. Once I completed it, I got offered a position in the office to become an electrical design engineer. Where I have just recently completed my Level 4. I'm potentially moving on to my Level 5 soon.   Jonathan Mitchell Thanks Dillon and also Amelia, you've also joined us today. Would you like to introduce yourself and tell us a bit about yourself? Amelia Russell Yeah, sure, so my name is Amelia Russell and I'm a governance and external affairs officer at the Institute and also lead on the apprentice panel and also have recently completed a Level 3 business administration apprenticeship. Jonathan Mitchell Terrific thanks so much and welcome to all of all of you. So I've got a lot of questions which we'll try and share to help demystify the raising the standards guidance that you guys have been working on. Dillon, I'll turn to you first what? What's the apprentice panel responsible for? Dillon Jones To me, the apprentice panel is responsible for challenging in reviewing the boards decisions. They make some key decisions for apprentices or whole throughout every industry and two times a year we have to update the board on what we do. Another thing that we do is we voice the opinion of current and previous apprentices. This is what we were trying to achieve with our survey in 2020. Jonathan Mitchell Fantastic. So, moving on, Jamilah can you tell us a bit what were the key findings that you that you found from the apprentice panel 2020 survey? Jamilah Simpson And so we received over 1000 responses to our 2020 apprentice panel survey, and there were four key main findings that we got from it. The first was that 85% of respondents had signed a commitment statement. The commitment statement is a contract which is signed by the Employer, Apprentice and training provider before the apprenticeship begins. The second key finding was at 62% of respondents reported receiving at least 20% off the job training. The third was 70% of respondents were satisfied that they're off the job training was useful in their job, and the fourth was 87% of respondents would recommend their apprenticeship. Jonathan Mitchell Thanks Jamilah and I know that the panel work really hard to think about what those findings and the many other findings of fact they came out of the apprentice panel survey what they might mean and what recommendations might be made. Amelia, do you think you could tell us a little bit about the recommendations that were made from the apprentice panel survey? What kind of things did the apprentice panel decide to recommend that they were hoping that that the Institute and other parts of government might take forwards?...
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    25 min
  • The Institute talks...about green apprenticeships

    The Institute talks...about green apprenticeships
    Jun 5 2021
    In this episode of The Institute talks, we talk about green apprenticeships. We are joined by Judy Ling Wong and Lee Stanford. Judy Ling Wong is an artist, painter and environmentalist best known as the honorary president of Black Environment Network, who is proud to chair the panel. Lee Sanford is the engineering training manager for National Express West Midlands looking at what can be done in terms of adding green apprenticeships and different technologies into the fleet. Transcript Helen Dalton Hello, I’m Helen Dalton a relationship manager at the Institute and I also work on the green apprenticeships project, I’m your host for this podcast today. For this special green apprenticeships podcast I’m joined by Judy Ling Wong and Lee Sanford welcome both would you like to introduce yourselves, Judy? Judy Ling Wong I’m Judy Ling Wong I’m an artist, painter and environmentalist best known as the honorary president of Black Environment Network, I’m very proud to chair this panel. Helen Dalton and Lee. Lee Sanford Yeah, my name's Lee Sanford I’m the engineering training manager for National Express West Midlands looking at what we can do in terms of adding green apprenticeships and different technologies into our people and fleet. Helen Dalton  Thanks so much. I’m so glad you could both join me today. Let's get started, so Judy can you tell me more about the green apprenticeships advisory panel why is it set up and what does it do? Judy Ling Wong The context for the green apprenticeship advisory panel is that the government is planning to create two million good quality green jobs by 2030 and apprenticeships and wide and technical education can really lead the way in terms of training. So the government published a 10 point plan in November for green industrial revolution backed by 12 billion pounds of investing and we will plan to help implement this. The green apprenticeship advisory panel will ensure that apprenticeships play a central role in the national green led recovery and will be well placed to help the uk meet its net zero carbon emissions target. So we will advise when existing apprenticeships could be made greener and also identify gaps that could be filled by new green apprenticeships. The panel will also feed into the new green jobs task force and help to create the plan in general for the necessary green jobs and skills working through each sector in turn over the coming months. Helen Dalton Thanks Judy so speaking personally what made you want to join and be chair of the green apprenticeships advisory panel? Judy Ling Wong Well, you know the big thing that really attracts me about environmental participation is the joining up of people and nature and what more can you do than to give people green jobs to join up people in nature. If people really want to contribute to a green revolution having a green job is devoting your entire working hours to a green future and people should be very proud of this. We want to encourage people to think about dream jobs, we want to particularly encourage young people to learn about the range of new jobs which is not easy, some of these jobs are very complicated to understand. So, in the coming months we're very much hoping that colleges will help us local, community groups and businesses will help us, plus going to schools to talk about this and introduce the various facets of jobs in the sector that people can actually begin to imagine themselves in. Helen Dalton Thanks Judy. So, Lee you're a member of the green apprenticeship community so what do you do and how does that role link in with what the panel does? Lee Sanford I’m a fairly new member to the team being perfectly honest, however I can massively see the importance of what the advisory panel is trying to achieve and being a member will allow me to add in a different perspective when looking at other types of green technologies within apprenticeships; and where others may be able to benefit from my experiences and more so I can benefit from their knowledge and their specialist sectors. I believe the community will be able to identify and put forward some really credible and realistic options for adding green and sustainable technologies into a substantial portion of apprenticeship standards. Helen Dalton Thanks lee and what made you want to join the community? Lee Sanford My entry into the community really came off the back of a conversation with the Institute for Apprenticeships around the national express 2030 zero emissions strategy, and how I can gain exposure for the unique challenge that I have around creating a Zero emissions apprenticeship pathway, which is within the Bus and Coach Engineering Technician standard. And I’m passionate about being able to provide career pathways for anyone who wants to take up an apprenticeship, and especially with zero emissions being at the heart of our National Express journey. I think there's no better place to learn and share ideas ...
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    20 min
  • The Institute talks...about the EQA transition

    The Institute talks...about the EQA transition
    Apr 28 2021
    This podcast was recorded for end-point assessment organisations (EPAOs) who must apply for Ofqual recognition by 1 July in support of external quality assurance (EQA) reforms. Charlotte Bosworth, managing director of Innovate Awarding and chair of the Federation of Awarding Bodies’ (FAB) End Point Assessment Organisation Group, Jessica Lewis-Bell, senior strategic relationships manager at Ofqual, and our own chief operating officer Rob Nitsch answer questions and provide guidance and insights. EQA monitors the end-point assessment that apprentices take at the end of their apprenticeship, to ensure that it is fair, consistent and robust across different apprenticeship standards and between different assessment organisations. Transcript Paul Offord Hello I’m Paul Offord I work in communications at the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education and I’m your host for this podcast. Today we are going to be talking about external quality assurance transition with Charlotte Bosworth, Jessica Lewis-Bell and our own Rob Nitsch. Welcome all, would you like to introduce yourself? Charlotte Bosworth Hi I’m Charlotte Bosworth, the managing director of Innovate Awarding and the chair of the end-point assessment organisations group for the Federation of Awarding Bodies. Jessica Lewis-Bell Hi I’m Jessica Lewis-Bell, I’m a senior manager in strategic relationships at Ofqual. Rob Nitsch And hello everybody I’m Rob Nitsch I’m the chief operating officer at the Institute and within that I have accountability for both external quality assurance and end-point assessment. Paul Offord Great stuff I’m glad you can all join me. Right let's get started, jess can you briefly explain what external quality assurance is? Jessica Lewis-Bell yeah of course so external quality assurance or EQA as it's widely known. Monitors the end-point assessment that apprentices take at the end of their apprenticeship to ensure that it's fair consistent and robust across different apprenticeship standards and between different assessment organisations. So Ofqual’s role is as an EQA provider we regulate end-point assessment organisations to ensure that they work to a high standard and we also ensure that the end-point assessment is fit for purpose. Paul Offord Okay and rob what do we mean when we talking about the transition process? Rob Nitsch Yes thank you Paul. The institute announced plans to move to a new simplified system for eqa of apprenticeship endpoint assessment back in last august. these changes will see eqa delivered now by ofqual or the office for students for integrated degree apprenticeships. and that means that the institute will stop directly delivering eqa but will continue to oversee the system in line with our statutory responsibility and we've put in place a framework to do that. it also means that though those other organizations that deliver eqa will also be handing over responsibility to ofqual and the office to students and what this means in the first batch so that transition um of those for whom the institute provides a service for open awards is that there'll be a transition of over 260 apprenticeships over to ofqual and all related endpoint assessment organizations on the register will need to secure recognition from ofqual as part of that process. Paul Offord  i see and when do endpoint assessment organizations who currently have their eqa delivered by the institute need to apply for recognition by? Rob Nitsch well first of all i'd like to say that the institute ofqual and of course the agency understand the extraordinary challenges that covid-19 have brought to the sector and the impact of the lockdown and how that has affected end-point assessment organizations. but of course there's been a huge amount of pressure and uh you know we think that it's particularly important to listen, to show flexibility, to respond uh where we can. and we've listened to concerns about the previously uh announced timings around the eqa transition process or sensor timings around the processor and we've decided to address this by extending the timeline. um so end point assessment organizations involved in this first phase so those people whose eqa is delivered by the institute which is in turn we contract open awards to do that, those organizations will now have until the first of july to make formal applications for the recognition from Ofqual and then they will then have until the 16th of December to complete the recognition process.  And just a couple of notes to that if i could the first is that we really strongly recommend that all those that attend to imply begin the process as soon as possible so they're going to wait until the first of july we and ofual would like organizations to start applying straight away and and some are also um we're gonna transition transition standards as as soon as we're able to and at that point eqa billing will cease for that apprenticeship so we will cease billing from...
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    32 min
  • The Institute talks...about autism and apprenticeships

    The Institute talks...about autism and apprenticeships
    Apr 2 2021
    As part of our apprentice panel podcasts, Joel Roach our apprentice panel host interviews new member Rhiannon Rees-Jones. Rhiannon is a former level 3 business admin apprentice at Northamptonshire County Council. In the podcast, Rhiannon talks about her diagnosis of Asperger’s in her late twenties and the challenges she has had to overcome and why she wanted to join the apprentice panel On completion of her apprenticeship, Rhiannon achieved an overall grade of Distinction. She also achieved two Northamptonshire Health and Care Partnership awards, the Apprenticeship Award for ‘Behind the Scenes’ in Adult Social Care and ‘Apprentice of the Year’ 2020. Transcript Joel Roach Hi, i'm Joel roach an apprentice at Microsoft and i'm also an apprentice panel member and I'll be hosting today's podcast for the apprentice panel podcast today. I'm joined by Rhiannon rees-jones welcome Rhiannon would you like to introduce yourself. Rhiannon Rees-Jones thank you so my name is Rhiannon Rees-Jones I work as a business support officer for the learning disability team part of what is currently Northamptonshire county council but as of the first of April we're going to be splitting into two unitaries and I'll be part of the west Northamptonshire council. Joel Roach well thank you so much for joining me today we'll dive straight into it so I want to ask first of all a couple of questions about your apprenticeship so what is your apprenticeship? what level was it? Rhiannon Rees-Jones I recently completed the business administrator level 3 apprenticeship last November.. which was brilliant because it really expanded on my skill set. Joel Roach so how did you initially find out about the apprenticeship um and about the fact that there was an opportunity that was open to you? Rhiannon Rees-Jones I think the first time was coming across an email from the learning resource hub so they had an information day so I thought i'd wander down and see what all the stores were, saw the apprenticeships and business have been on there i think at first i kind of wandered past a bit and then got called over so i thought well i'll get the forms and then after a while i was still umming and ahhing so i wasn't sure whether i'd be able to handle what was involved and whether i'd be have the qualifications to actually apply for it and then i had another email come round from my line manager's manager with the same information and then i thought why not i might as well do it i'll pursue it and my line manager my colleagues actually encouraged me as well and i'm actually glad i did because it gave me the motivation i needed to excel in my current role as well Joel Roach no that's amazing to hear um it's great there was so many people around you that were encouraging you to do this as well Rhiannon Rees-Jones yeah i think how a good support network is vital Joel Roach now you came into your apprenticeship um having already been established in your career for a few years um so how did you find being a more mature apprentice um how was that experience for you? Rhiannon Rees-Jones  it actually went a lot easier than i thought it was going to be of course i went in thinking they're all going to be younger than me and i'm probably going to be the only one that's older but then i thought well if you can go to university as a mature student why can't you do the same for an apprenticeship and then when it rather it was age restricted before that kind of put me down having the age limit lifted makes it so much easier as well it's never too late to start a career put it that way Joel Roach no absolutely that's a yeah that's a great message to put out there um you sort of mentioned there were lots of you know you weren't the only mature apprentice on the uh on the course um did you have a sort of special network with them did you have a chance to sort of share ideas and perspectives with them Rhiannon Rees-Jones  i had the chance to share perspectives with everyone because any one of the mature apprentices in my cohort and the other two are in their twenties but i think the mature apprentice i kind of got in touch with first so i think it was a lot easier and then i've done you brought the other two in and i was also able to encourage them to speak up when they needed to Joel Roach did you have a lot of learnings to share with the younger apprentices because you're already established in your career you've already got all this experience you've picked up along the way Rhiannon Rees-Jones yeah i think the first one the first questions we did was to introduce ourselves and say three things that we thought no one else knew it was quite interesting in that respect so it yeah we had one lady who was working in a school one who's in finance then myself and admin and one he was part of a children's charity as well so that was interesting to share experiences from that perspective Joel Roach yeah definitely and i think it's always great to have different ...
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    16 min
  • The Institute talks...about women in apprenticeships

    The Institute talks...about women in apprenticeships
    Mar 8 2021
    In this episode of The Insitute talks, we talk about women in apprenticeships. In the podcast, we are joined by Anna West, Deputy Director for apprenticeship approvals and funding, Helen Douglas, Director of apprenticeships at Cisco and digital route panel member, and Stacey Dunne, Telecoms apprentice at Virgin Media and an apprentice panel member. We ask the questions ‘what has your experience been like as women in apprenticeships’ and ‘what are the barriers for women’. The overall proportion of women on apprenticeships remains at around 50%. At the Institute, we want to see far more women taking STEM apprenticeships and know that employers feel the same. However, there are lots of great opportunities out there for women in STEM apprenticeships right up to degree level. At Cisco, Helen talks about all the new initiatives she’s set up to encourage more women into the digital sector, resulting in 49% of their apprentices being women! At the Institute, we are continuing to look at diversity and inclusion within our organisation and in our provision of technical education and apprenticeships. In the podcast, we discuss ways we can have more diverse representation on our panels, and how diversity and inclusion is at the heart of everything we do. You can subscribe to The Institute talks podcast on Amazon Music, Apple podcast, Spotify and all other major podcast platforms. Transcript Sarah Hello, I’m Sarah a former apprentice and a social media manager at the Institute and your host for this podcast today. For this special podcast about women in apprenticeships, I’m joined by Anna West, Helen Douglas and Stacy Dunne. So, welcome all would you like to introduce yourselves.  Anna Hi everyone, I’m Anna West. I’m the deputy director for apprenticeship approvals and funding at the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education Helen Hi, my name is Helen Douglas, I lead apprenticeships for Cisco in the UK, and also have the honour of sitting on the digital route panel. Stacey Hello my name's Stacey I’m based in Hertfordshire and I’m currently a network apprentice for Virgin Media and I’m also on the apprentice panel for the Institute of Apprentices as well. Sarah Wonderful, thank you. So I’m really glad you can all join me today. So well, let's get started into the podcast then. So, this will be a discussion, so let's start off with the first kind of topic and question we've got for you. So as women working in apprenticeships or as an apprentice Stacey, what has your experience been like? Stacey It's been really, really positive.  Obviously, I’m an engineer and that is mostly kind of male-based. So there is quite a high number of males compared to females doing this role. But I have met many females on this during my apprenticeship, but also within the job as well. I actually joined Virgin Media with a specific all-women wanted kind of recruitment drive. So, there was a bunch of women and that I knew from my local area, and we all kind of joined together, and it was really nice to have that support from other women there. But to be fair, the all the guys that work here are beyond supportive, and you're treated like everybody else. They will absolutely rip you if you do something stupid. So, I’ve just found it a really positive experience. But having that female support as well, which was unexpected, I didn't expect to have other women with me to be honest. I thought it was a kind of individual recruitment basis. But having that kind of women's support as well was really nice. Not required, but it was a definite cherry on the cake. So it's been so, so positive for me, I’ve really enjoyed myself so far. Sarah That sounds really good. It sounds really interesting that you had like it was a specific drive for women but you're just like a normal person there, and everyone treats you exactly the same. Stacey You're expected to you know, do everything that everybody else does, and I find that the gender really doesn't matter here. You know if there's any ever any issues I don't see them as you know a woman issue or a girl issue. I just see them as people issues, and I think that's what they really try to promote here. That everyone's kind of equal, and on the same you know you've got the same possibilities as anybody else. I know they are trying to get more women involved into engineering. I think maybe women maybe think, oh I couldn't do that, or you know, all that's not for me, or you know, I come from an arts background. So, I come from dance and photography, so never say never. The women that I joined with, one worked in child care for years, and another was a beauty therapist for years and years while she raised her kids. So it's a definite nice background of people that have all come over now. Even with the guys that are here, there's a there's an apprentice on service, and he's an ex-jockey. So, it's not gender specific really for the for the history that you've got ...
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    53 min
  • The Institute talks...about T Levels with Ashley and Daisy from HSDC

    The Institute talks...about T Levels with Ashley and Daisy from HSDC
    Mar 1 2021

    In this episode of The Insitute talks, we talk to Havant and South Downs College all about T Levels.

    In the podcast, we are joined by Daisy, an education and childcare T Level student and Ashley, Assistant Principal Vocational Curriculum. They talk about their experiences over the last 6 months and how the coronavirus pandemic has affected them.

    You can subscribe to The Institute talks podcast on Amazon Music, Apple podcast, Spotify and all other major podcast platforms.

    Transcript

    To follow.
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    21 min