Step by Step Careers Guide for Apprentices

A STEP-BY-STEP CAREERS GUIDE FOR APPRENTICES

How to plan to be ready for your future.

University of Winchester Careers Guide for Apprentices

CONTENTS

Introduction

Support from the Careers Team

Step 1 – Explore your options

Step 2 – Recognise your strengths

Step 3 – Decide some next steps

Step 4 – Find work

Step 5 – Create a great CV

Step 6 - Winning application forms

Step 7 – Prepare for a positive interview

Step 8 - Find out more

Look after yourself!

Conclusion

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Introduction

As an apprentice learning with the University of Winchester, you have access to careers advice when you need it and for life! The aim of this guide is to walk you through what support is available from the University’s Careers Team and what steps you can take to:

■ Consider your future

■ Equip yourself to take action

■ Make career decisions to help you stand out from the crowd. There is no perfect roadmap but there are things you can do to make a positive difference to your career journey. This guide will include a range of steps you can follow and advice that you will probably want to dip in and out of, depending on your circumstances. Please take the time to think about your future – you will need to be realistic and flexible due to your personal circumstance and the current economic situation in the UK and globally.

Support from the Careers Team

As an apprentice, there is a breadth of resources to access and the Careers Team will support you to explore your different options, your job search and study ideas. Whether you are looking for career progression, further development, a graduate role, considering further professional study, exploring self-employment or still considering your options, we are here to help.

The global pandemic, international conflict and Brexit have all altered the UK and global labour market and the effects are being felt by everyone, whatever stage they are at in their careers. Some industries have been subdued and others are expanding, therefore, it is important to remain flexible when considering all your options.

You are welcome to use the resources and websites we outline to support you whether you want to gain a new direction, search for management or graduate jobs, create winning applications, prepare for interview, or something else.

Resources to support you as an apprentice:

■ You have access to CareerConnect, our Careers and Jobs Platform winchester.jobteaser.com where you can:

■ Search for work and set choices to be alerted of roles that suit you

■ View and attend our workshops and events

■ Access information and advice

■ Book a careers appointment with one of our Faculty Employability Advisers.

Self Reflective Activity

Consider your motivation for doing the apprenticeship, where would you like to take it?

Careers advice for life

Booking to speak with one of our professional careers advisers will give you “time out” to discuss your future options, to consider your interests, values, and challenges and to weigh up the implications of any career decisions. Our Faculty Employability Advisers are professionally qualified and trained to enable you to help yourself, to take ownership of your career planning.

Step 1

Take time to explore and weigh up your options

Whether you have many years’ experience, have changed jobs several times or are early in your career, your unique experience and study has equipped you with skills and has opened up opportunities with a variety of employers and occupations. Take time to reflect on your experience and connections, to develop a good picture of your options, which you can investigate. There are a range of opportunities to consider:

■ Further learning: Postgraduate, professional training, a Masters or a short skills course?

■ Full or part-time work, internal secondment, management or graduate level roles, graduate schemes, a sidewards move, or a total change in direction?

■ Starting your own business or going freelance?

■ Pausing to take time out, to add to your experience or to consider volunteering?

Be realistic about the context

It is important to understand how the labour market is changing constantly and how it might impact on decisions you make. The National Higher Education Careers Service Prospects www.prospects.ac.uk has some helpful insights and regular labour market updates and helpful tips on job hunting and staying positive. The BBC www.bbc.co.uk has regular employment updates and People Management www.peoplemanagement.co.uk has a regular blog. Have a look at LMI for All, on www.lmiforall.org.uk/explore_lmi or the official labour market statistics produced by the Office for National Statistics on www.nomisweb.co.uk

Step 2

Recognise your strengths

As an apprentice, an early career professional or with several years of experience, you bring many important benefits to your employer and your future career and knowing these strengths and attributes is key for keeping motivated and positive when considering your next step.

Further to becoming an expert in your current role or course subject, you have developed technical, specialist and transferable skills that have equipped you for work, within your organisation or wider. Consider your current and previous positions, any volunteering, research, short training courses, presentations you have made, social groups or sports, etc. Consider the skills you may want to tell employers about?

■ Research and analysing information and experiences

■ Evaluation and articulation of reasoned arguments

■ Organisation and time management, with the capacity to set goals and meet deadlines

■ Written and verbal communication and presentation of ideas, information or reports

■ Leadership and motivation or coaching of others

■ Problem solving, being creative and developing ideas. For applications and interviews you will be required to highlight your most relevant examples of skills and achievements that you are most proud of from these activities that will help you showcase your strengths, and therefore help you to stand out from the crowd.

Self Reflective Activity

Think about your current roll. Can you list the strengths you have developed while doing it whilst juggling work with study.

Step 3

Decide some next steps

Finding the right path and making realistic decisions involves weighing up your options and circumstances, while at the same time, aiming to match your interests and motivations to your unique profile of skills, values and aptitudes.

To help you make important decisions about your future path, aim to be flexible but gain as much information as possible to assist you:

■ Connecting with employers. It is good to talk to colleagues, attend webinars, employer events or presentations and talk to those doing jobs you are interested in. Many events have been moved online to virtual platforms and CareerConnect will advertise a range of these, however LinkedIn is a very powerful tool for connecting with organisations, making contact with those in companies that interest you and knowing when an employer is recruiting.

■ Gain different experience (if possible). If you are seeking a different role, a career changer or having to find something new, aim to build in time for work shadowing or volunteering.

■ Complete an online careers questionnaire to generate ideas, e.g. Career Planner on www.prospects.ac.uk

■ Take time to research. There are so many good careers websites, full of insight into jobs and occupational areas. You can use these to discover key trends and appreciate what is going on locally, in the national and global jobs market and understand which roles are expanding or declining.

■ Discuss your plans with someone you really respect, perhaps someone a few years ahead of you in their career path or a friend in a job who you admire. You can also book to talk with a Faculty Employability Adviser at the University of Winchester.

■ Consider the elements of roles you have enjoyed or disliked. Think about what you want out of the next couple of years. Where do you want to live? What sort of work life balance do you hope to achieve? Then consider what industries or roles might help you achieve this.

What happens in a careers appointment?

Faculty Employability Advisers are professionally qualified and trained to enable you to take ownership of your career planning. During the discussion, they will listen to your ideas and help you through the process of choosing and applying for careers, work and courses. They will encourage you to identify your influences and any barriers, but they cannot do all the research or make decisions for you. In supporting you to make plans to move forward, they may refer you to other agencies that help with specific non-career queries or advice.

The appointment is 40 minutes and an opportunity to look at yourself objectively. At the start the Adviser will agree with you the structure and agenda for the session and any limitations to confidentiality being maintained.

Self Reflective Activity

Talk to your collegues at work, do you know about the wide variety of roles within your organisation? List the ones that interest you.

Step 4 Find work

There will be a breadth of full-time opportunities and graduate roles advertised on a range of sites that you will be qualified and skilled for, including your own organisation’s jobs boards. Set some time aside each day to look through them and to get to know the sites that you really like and feel easy for you to use.

■ Use CareerConnect, winchester.jobteaser.com It is the University’s Careers and Jobs platform where you can set your preferences to receive email alerts for full-time and graduate jobs or specific type of contracts you are looking for.

■ Sign up for job alerts on a range of known sites that you find helpful. This will save you time and introduce you to opportunities you may not have previously considered. Use filters to put in job titles, duties (e.g. ‘writing’) and/or the word “graduate” on sites such as www.reed.co.uk, www.indeed.co.uk, www.totaljobs.com, and www.hampshirechronicle.co.uk/jobs

■ Register to get notifications on specialist graduate job sites such as www.prospects.ac.uk, targetjobs.co.uk, milkround.com jobs-graduate.co.uk gradjobs.co.uk graduate-jobs.com and best-graduates.co.uk

■ Search on the websites of companies you have considered. Most have a careers or a jobs section, and these are usually right at the top of their website or in the information lists at the bottom of the page. E.g. sainsburys.jobs and www.hsbc.com/careers/find-a-job.

■ Make yourself searchable, most job boards have a function which allow you to upload your CV to their database and make it visible to recruiters. Some jobs are not advertised on job boards but recruiters search CV databases for candidates instead.

■ Use sector specific job sites for particular industries, like www.charityjob.co.uk www.environmentjob.co.uk/ jobs, jobs.communitycare.co.uk, www.designweek.co.uk, prisonandprobationjobs.gov.uk and www.accountancycareers.co.uk However, there are many more.

■ Use specific recruitment or employment agencies for the industries that interest you. Agencies work on behalf of employers to find suitable candidates and act as the link between jobseekers and employers. Many employers use them and signing up will sometimes give you access to jobs that aren’t advertised elsewhere. Search on www.agencycentral.co.uk for an industry related recruitment agency that you are interested in.

■ Update your profile on LinkedIn and connect with colleagues, professionals, lecturers, and relatives and let them know you are looking to progress. Find the University’s LinkedIn page and click Alumni button to find other graduates.

■ Many jobs are not publicly advertised so use your contacts to find them. Be proactive and send employers a well written professional looking CV and a covering email explaining why you are interested in them and why you would be an asset to their team.

Self Reflective Activity

Consider the development opportunities at your own organisation. How would you make useful contacts within the different departments that you could talk to to find out more.

Step 5

Create a great CV

A CV is your ‘marketing document’ and is your first chance to make a positive impression to employers. It should highlight your skills and attributes, matching the personal specification and job description of the job you are applying for. A CV should look professional, be well written, easy to read and without spelling, grammar or punctuation errors.

Ensure your CV is a positive summary of your skills and experience tailored to the job role. Put yourself in the place of the employer and look to produce a CV that is:

■ Professional: Structure your CV so that it reads professionally and has a logical structure with clearly headed sections. Include “white space” so the text doesn’t look cramped. Use some active verbs and business-like language.

■ Easy to read: Ensure that the important information and relevant skills are found quickly and easily on page 1, with the Qualifications/Education and Employment/Work Experience in a logical order with the most recent first. Use obvious headings, clear sections, bold typeface, bullet-points or small paragraphs, all for ease of reading.

■ Clear and concise: Avoid slang, jargon or abbreviations. Your font size should be a minimum of 11 and two sides of A4 is the norm for CVs for the majority of jobs in the UK.

■ Competence-based: Does your CV describe evidence of your skills gained from a variety of sources, from work, academic study, achievements, clubs or teams you are involved with? Many employers like a “Skills” focused CV.

■ Tailored to the jobs/employers you are applying to. You will need to amend your content and maybe the format of your CV to suit each job that you apply for.

■ Checked by someone else: Have you asked for feedback from a Faculty Employability Adviser, lecturers or an industry professional?

For more detail download our “Step by step guide to writing a CV”: issuu.com/theuniversityofwinchester/docs/issuu_careers_service_cv_brochure?fr=sYmU3ZjEzMDU1NzE

Step 6

Winning application forms

Producing a professional application to secure an interview takes time, but it is vital. Many companies use an online application form to recruit and forms are often designed to be efficient for both you, the candidate and the recruiter. Generally, most will require your contact information, education and previous employment details and sometimes to complete online ability tests.

Some forms ask you to answer a couple of specific application questions and most have a longer section, a personal statement, asking you to demonstrate how your experience and skills match the person specification for the job you are applying to. This is the most important part of the form, your chance to persuade the employer that you are suited to them and the role, so target the evidence and details you provide in this application to the role you are applying for

Tips for the Personal Statement in an application form:

■ Ensure that you read any instructions in the personal statement section as organisations may have slightly different requirements.

■ If it is a free text section you will need to address each section of the person specification, providing examples of how you have demonstrated each of the skills they require.

■ You will need to target the evidence and details that you provide to the job and company you are applying to and echo the language used in the job advertisement, on the website or in the job description.

■ Check the wordcount (and use it) and then draft the personal statement in Word first so you can copy and paste it in after doing a spell check.

■ Produce a clear and professionally written statement that is logical and easy to read, and like a CV, avoid slang, jargon or abbreviations.

■ Use bullet points, writing information that is concise and to the point. No waffle!

■ Write your examples in the STAR format – see STAR diagram.

■ As well as addressing the person specification points, include why you want the job and information to show you are keen and understand what the job is and what the organisation does.

■ Make an appointment with a Faculty Employability Adviser to check your first personal statement at least. S T A R

SITUATION TASK ACTION RESULT

Introduce the situation to the employer and set the context

Explain

what you did

results of your efforts, including accomplishments, rewards and impact

Are there opportunitioes at your own organisation for secondments? Do you know the process for applying for one?

Step 7

Prepare for interviews

Congratulations for making it to interview! They now want to meet you face-to-face or maybe, online and they want to find out that you: 1) Know what the job and organisation is about. 2) Can do the job. 3) Will like the job, make a positive contribution to the team and company goals and fit into the company culture. 4) Not leave. Always consider this when planning and answering questions. Good luck!

■ Conduct around the interview: Remember that your behaviour and self-presentation when arranging the interview and during the interview are all having an impact on the employer. Always be polite, have a professional voicemail and email and present yourself in a way that shows you care and want the job. How you dress, sit, how you greet the Receptionist and talk with other staff you may meet during the interview process all make an impression.

■ Prepare and learn all about the organisation and job: Research the company by looking online at their website and also on news pages. Review sites like www.glassdoor.co.uk will help you to build up a balanced picture.

■ You will need to plan your journey if the interview is at their premises. Give yourself enough time to arrive early and park if necessary. Understand the job role, get familiar again with the job description and person specification and what you wrote on the application form.

■ Interview questions: Consider the likely questions they might ask to ensure you meet the personal specification criteria. Use the STAR format and prepare some standard examples before the interview that you could tweak if the questions are slightly different.

■ Prepare answers to more relaxed questions such as “Why do you want this job?” or “What are your career plans?” or “Tell us in one sentence why you are the best person for the job”.

■ Presentations: If you are asked to prepare a presentation make sure you practise it, it is within the time limit and that you are comfortable with any technology being used (print out back up copies in case technology fails).

Self Reflective Activity

Don’t forget to remind yourself of your skills development through your work and study. How would you explain these at interview?

Step 8 Find out more

There are so many websites and resources you can explore and find the ones you like best to support you as you plan your career journey or just the next small step. We have listed a few here that we regularly use as a Careers Team.

■ CareerConnect (powered by Jobteaser) our University’s Careers and Opportunities Platform: winchester.jobteaser.com

■ Prospects: www.prospects.ac.uk

■ Target Jobs: targetjobs.co.uk

■ Graduate Recruitment Bureau: www.grb.uk.com

■ Milkround: www.milkround.com

■ Bright Network: www.brightnetwork.co.uk

■ It is really important to keep up to date with the latest news and trends within your field of work. Make sure you follow key sector-specific online news sources, blogs and research relevant organisational bodies on the internet/ LinkedIn to gather information. You can mention this activity in application forms and interviews. For example, for Teaching: Tes.com; Schoolsweek; for Marketing: PR week; Campaignlive; for Social Work: Communitycare and for Law: The Law Society Gazette is very useful.

Boost your skills using free, online learning websites

Online courses are generally very good for broadening your knowledge or for gaining understanding within a new field. Plus, ‘refreshing’ some of your skills and knowledge will demonstrate to the employer how passionate and motivated you are about your key subject. Have a look at these sites:

■ www.futurelearn.com

■ freecoursesinengland.co.uk/free-courses-1

■ www.open.edu/openlearn

■ www.classcentral.com

Self Reflective Activity

Locate and keep an eye on your own organisation’s jobs board.

Look after yourself

Career pathways are diverse, can be unpredictable, and unexpected. Routes into careers are not linear and many sectors have a diversity of routes in. Depending on the industry there are opportunities open from entry level up to experienced professionals, with a range of contracts – full time, part-time, contract and freelance, with many people also developing portfolio careers. Aim to remain positive, resilient and to market yourself drawing on you as a ‘whole’ person. Be open to possibilities and ‘other routes in’.

For inspiration and tactics for keeping a positive mindset in your graduate journey see the following article on Target Jobs: Resilience: the ability to cope with setbacks

Focusing on your future takes time and energy so please take time to look after your physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing to keep positive and motivated. Aim to:

■ Keep fit and healthy, so that you can increase your resilience, maintain enthusiasm and be prepared for ‘Life After Coronavirus’.

■ Take up some different forms of exercise, maybe something you have not tried before. Use this as an opportunity to try new things and to develop your creativity skills.

■ Remain positive, consider how to replace any negative thoughts. Practise techniques such as Mindfulness. You can change your mindset; it is all about consciously creating habits. Make the most of any constructive feedback and use it to move forward.

■ Take regular breaks - do not sit in front of the computer all the time, set yourself manageable goals and try to establish some kind of routine that works for you.

■ Focus on your list of skills and achievements, reminding yourself of all the things you have learned and accomplished in your career. This can give you a boost of confidence and motivation.

Both Prospects and Target jobs have added some useful advice to their websites:

www.prospects.ac.uk/careers-advice/getting-a-job/your-career-and-covid-19 targetjobs.co.uk/careers-advice/career-planning/1044523-job-hunting-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic-whatyou-need-to-know

Alternative support services

And of course, there are always other services available if you need them:

The NHS: www.nhs.uk/service-search/other-services

MIND: www.mind.org.uk/workplace/mental-health-at-work/taking-care-of-yourself/five-ways-to-wellbeing National Careers Service: nationalcareers.service.gov.uk

Remember that we are here to help you through this transition. See below for the ways we support graduates.

Conclusion

No one could have predicted the current global economic situation, the rising cost of living, gobal conflicts, the pandemic and their bearing on society and the labour market. The impact on organisations, community groups, families and individuals has been felt across the globe. World leaders are struggling to deal with these circumstances, so it is no wonder that as individuals, we are too.

Whatever your circumstances your unique experience so far has equipped you to manage your plans and next steps. Different opportunities will become available to you at different points in your life. Here at Winchester Careers Service we aim to help you navigate your personal career path.

Give yourself time to consider your options, aim to remain positive, resilient and flexible and be kind to yourself too. Remember that finding the right path and making realistic decisions involves weighing up your options and circumstances, while at the same time, aiming to match your interests and motivations to your unique profile of skills, values and attributes.

Please use any of the resources that the University’s Careers Service provides and use CareerConnect and all its functions, listed earlier in the document. Keep in touch we wish you all the very best.