National Apprenticeship Week 2019
National Apprenticeship Week is an annual week-long celebration of apprenticeships will bring the whole apprenticeship community together to celebrate the impact of apprenticeships on individuals, employers and the economy. Here at NewcastleGateshead Initiative we’ve had a brilliant experience of adding apprentices to our busy team, and we wanted to take this week to celebrate the stories of two of our apprentices who’ve gone on to be fantastic additions to the NewcastleGateshead Initiative team.
Carly Ivers
In 2016 NewcastleGateshead Initiative employed our first apprentice through Gateshead Council. Carly Ivers joined us straight from school having had no previous experience of working within an office environment. During her induction Carly was introduced to all of our staff and they were all immediately impressed by her maturity and confidence, and within a few short weeks she had become an invaluable member of the team.
Carly was achieving her 3 monthly targets within just a few days of joining the team, however she wasn’t satisfied with this. Carly actively sought out new challenges and was incredibly interested in what we did as an organisation, so meetings were set up for her to meet with members of each team so that they could explain more about what they did. This meant that she was then able to help across the entire organisation and very quickly became an indispensable member of the team.
Carly’s tenacity when faced with a task was excellent and she never missed an opportunity to gain more experience of working within the organisation and regularly volunteered to work at weekend or evening events.
Unfortunately, due to budget constraints, we weren’t able to offer Carly a permanent position at NewcastleGateshead Initiative, but we were delighted to see her go on to a full-time role at Gateshead Council, and even more thrilled when a role in our Convention Bureau team became available and Carly applied. After her amazing performance throughout her apprenticeship we, of course, jumped at the chance to welcome Carly back to the team, and since then she has continued to grow and develop in her new role, and to exceed our expectations.
Talking about her experience of apprenticeship Carly said; “I got hands-on experience, gaining confidence working in a professional environment and worked on projects that I’d never imagined would be possible. As a 17-year-old, I never considered that this organisation would have such a huge impact on my life. But fast forward 5 years, I am now back at NewcastleGateshead Initiative as a Business Events Assistant in our award-winning Convention Bureau team! The moral of the story is that it has had a massive impact on my life and I’d encourage all young people to look at all the great examples shared this week as part of National Apprenticeship Week and think a little differently about their future!”
Josh Allison
After our amazing experience with Carly we decided to recruit another Apprentice in June 2017 and we immediately contacted Gateshead Council and we knew that we could rely on them again to assist us with our search.
Gateshead Council interviewed Josh Allison prior to sending us his CV, and when we met Josh we were immediately impressed by his maturity and enthusiasm to work with NewcastleGateshead Initiative. He’d researched our organisation and was able to answer all of our questions with confidence. We offered Josh a yearlong apprenticeship and were delighted when he agreed to join us in July 2017.
Within days we realised that Josh was capable of achieving more than the Level 2 Apprenticeship he’d enrolled on. I spoke to Gateshead Council and they supported our request to change Josh to a Level 3 Apprenticeship. With this increased incentive Josh continued to work hard, tackling every task with enthusiasm and (like Carly before him) achieving all his 3-month targets within one month. From then on Josh has gone from strength to strength at NewcastleGateshead Initiative, planning the expansion of the office for Great Exhibition of the North, and now playing an integral part in the research, implementation and training plans for a new internal networking system.
When asked what being our apprentice means to him Josh said; “Being an apprentice at NewcastleGateshead Initiative has given me the opportunity to gain experience of so many different and exciting things and working on Great Exhibition of the North was a once in a lifetime opportunity. I really feel like I’m part of the team here and it’s brilliant that I’ve been offered a job after my apprenticeship. I’m looking forward to staying in this highly respected organisation which champions the North East and all it has to offer.”
Following his apprenticeship, we were able to keep Josh on as our Admin and Events Assistant to cover a colleague’s maternity leave, and this week we were thrilled to be able to offer him the role permanently! This is testimony to how highly thought of he is within the organisation, and we’re sure he’ll continue to do great things here.
What next?
Here at NewcastleGateshead Initiative apprenticeships have not only been a way for us to provide opportunities to young people looking to get into the world of work but have also been a fantastic way for us to nurture some amazingly talented people who have become irreplaceable within the organisation. We’re looking forward to welcoming a new apprentice to our busy Admin and Events team soon, and can’t wait to see what they can do!