A Parent’s Guide to Apprenticeships

As a parent or guardian, you play a crucial role in supporting your child to explore the opportunities available to them for life after school. It can be difficult to know where to start but it’s important to arm yourself with the latest information and resources. This is where we come in.

Apprenticeships offer a great alternative to college or university, and could be the answer if your child wants to get straight into employment and earn whilst they learn. Read on to find out why work-based learning might be the right path for your child.

What is an Apprenticeship?

An Apprenticeship is a work-based learning programme that enables your child to learn on the job, develop their skills, achieve nationally-recognised Level 2-5 qualifications, earn a wage and build a rewarding career.

What are the benefits of an Apprenticeship?

Apprenticeships offer a hands-on alternative to the continual demands of essays, exams and studying that university entails. So what can your child expect instead? There are no classrooms or homework; they will learn working on the job with help and support with Essential Skills in English and Maths if needed. At university they can choose from a wide variety of degrees, but as an Apprentice they can work in almost any sector too.

Start at any time

Did you know that your child can start an Apprenticeship at any time throughout the year? Unlike college or university, they don’t have to wait until September to start. This means that if your child is currently in college and considering dropping out, they can enrol onto one of our training programmes or apply for any of our live Apprenticeship vacancies straightaway. Also, a standard university degree takes three years to complete, yet an Apprenticeship can take as little as 12 months to achieve.

No debt

For many individuals, the prospect of racking up tens of thousands of pounds of debt can be a crucial factor when deciding whether to go to university or pursuing alternative options like Apprenticeships. However, Welsh Government funding means that your child, and their employer, don’t have to pay a penny for their Apprenticeship training. This means that the money they earn while working towards a qualification, and better yet, won’t be paying a student loan off for the next thirty years!

What qualifications are on offer?

Did you know your child can do an Apprenticeship in Digital Marketing or Accounting? You might have thought that Apprenticeships are only for manual trades such as electricians and plumbers but this is not the case! A wealth of professions offer Apprenticeship opportunities: Childcare, Customer Service, Clinical Healthcare, Education, Marketing, Catering and Hospitality, and many more! ACT offer Apprenticeships in over 30 sectors so we most likely have something to appeal to them.

Check out the full list of Apprenticeship qualifications on offer here.

Care, Support and Guidance

We have a highly skilled team with extenstive industry experience to ensure your child receives all the support and guidance they need to progress through their qualification. This includes extra support services to help all our learners make the most of their ACT experience.

All learners on ACT programmes can take full advantage of the following services:

Additional Support

Learners can access a range of additional learning support to enable them to complete their learning programme. This may include a post enrolment assessment, specialist software, personal support and reasonable adjustments during assessments, such as additional time, reading and/or scribe support.

Learner Representative

We have a full-time Learner Rep who is there to represent your child and make their voice heard. If they have any feedback, concerns, or thoughts on their training then they can book in for a coffee and catch up with our Learner Rep.

In-house counsellor

Whatever your child may be experiencing, whether it’s an issue relating to their learner journey, or problems outside their qualification, our support team are on hand to assist with their welfare. Our experienced in-house counsellor will always provide the time and space needed for your child to talk privately about their troubles and help resolve any issues. Sessions are confidential, maximum an hour in length, and only the individual and the counsellor will be present during the sessions.

Safeguarding Officers

Similar to our in-house counsellor, our team of safeguarding officers are there for learners’ welfare and will support them with any problems. If your child has any concerns around this, they can contact their Assessor who will be able to put them in touch with an ACT Safeguarding Officer.

Meet Callum

Callum Lucas knew the Apprenticeship routes was the pathway he wanted to take, and with help from ACT, Callum successfully secured an Apprenticeship in Cardiff University’s School of Psychology.

“I really enjoy learning and obtaining new skills on the job, so an Apprenticeship really appealed to me. Now that I am an Apprentice, I think it’s the best decision I’ve made. I have many different tasks I undertake daily, with each day very different to the next. I have regular meetings with my line manager to review my progress, which is great because I can then use the skills I am learning to improve on my performance. I am always being given different duties which help me understand how the university and the course works.

“My assessors have been very helpful, and the tasks they have set me have been really good for me as I have researched different topics and learnt new things. I feel my Apprenticeship couldn’t be going any better, as my employers and ACT have been fantastic.

“After I finish my Level 2 qualification, I hope to move onto the Level 3. I feel that it will strengthen both me as a worker, and also my CV. I feel very lucky to have this job and I know I will definitely become more employable because of this Apprenticeship.”

How to apply for an Apprenticeship

If your child thinks an Apprenticeship could be the right next step and isn’t sure where to start, we are here to help. We have hundreds of Apprenticeship vacancies from top Welsh employers who are looking for bright young candidates like your child. We also have connections with over 700 employers and continue to help over 6500 young Welsh people achieve their career ambitions.

If your child is aged 16-18, needs more thinking time and wants to try some different options before starting an Apprenticeship, then our Traineeship programme could be for right for them. Find out more about our Traineeships here.