{"id":2016,"date":"2024-02-09T15:45:23","date_gmt":"2024-02-09T15:45:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leantree.co.uk\/?p=2016"},"modified":"2024-02-16T09:03:02","modified_gmt":"2024-02-16T09:03:02","slug":"how-i-made-the-best-decision-for-me-choosing-an-apprenticeship-over-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leantree.co.uk\/how-i-made-the-best-decision-for-me-choosing-an-apprenticeship-over-university\/","title":{"rendered":"How I Made the Best Decision For Me: Choosing an Apprenticeship Over University"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"gb-container gb-container-9b666999\">\n\n<p class=\"gb-headline gb-headline-cfe9d18d gb-headline-text\">Deciding your future path post-school is a big decision.&nbsp; Most of my friends were choosing to follow the more traditional route to University, whereas it was not such a straightforward decision for me.&nbsp;&nbsp; I knew I wanted to continue learning but, unlike many of my peers, the thought of spending another 3 or 4 more years in traditional education did not appeal to me.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"gb-headline gb-headline-74bbe60c gb-headline-text\">This is where my journey to degree apprenticeships began. When looking at alternative options I discovered that degree apprenticeship allowed me to gain both a valuable qualification as well as priceless industry experience.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"gb-headline gb-headline-2673296c gb-headline-text\">Where did my journey start?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"gb-headline gb-headline-dee39d9d gb-headline-text\">Contrary to what many people think, selecting this route is not easy (and in some cases more competitive than applying for universities &#8211; if that is possible!):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>I had to do a lot of my own research&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>I needed to think about the industry I wanted to be in&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>I had to look for organisations offering apprenticeships and where they were located&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>I had to apply to a multitude of places due to the competitiveness, manage different deadlines and complete lots of assessments.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"gb-headline gb-headline-9ecbfb97 gb-headline-text\">But not deterred by these challenges I continued and found a great opportunity with Lean Tree and have been amazed to see what apprenticeships can offer.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"gb-headline gb-headline-32927a6a gb-headline-text\">5 months in &#8211; What have I gained from my Apprenticeship so far?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"gb-headline gb-headline-bffd19dd gb-headline-text\"><strong>Career Opportunities<\/strong>&#8211; Working within businesses I am able to see all the career possibilities.&nbsp; I feel that I will be in a greater position to receive higher-skilled jobs as I am gaining experience and gaining a qualification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"gb-headline gb-headline-07b45f88 gb-headline-text\"><strong>Client Facing Experience<\/strong> &#8211; I was worried that it would take a long time for me to offer something of value and be able to work for clients, however, this was wrong from the very start.\u00a0 Any training I received was focused on preparing me for client-facing work, therefore after only a few months, I was starting to work with clients.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"gb-headline gb-headline-03d4e71a gb-headline-text\"><strong>Developing skills \u2013 <\/strong>I am developing lots of practical business skills and only 5 months in I am already receiving exposure to industry-specific training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"gb-headline gb-headline-cb22f388 gb-headline-text\"><strong>Learning from Experts<\/strong> \u2013 I am exposed to industry experts and can seek advice in a professional environment.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"gb-headline gb-headline-16c260bf gb-headline-text\"><strong>Support of a Mentor<\/strong> \u2013 Lean Tree has provided me with a dedicated mentor from the start of my career, who provides me with a wide range of practical and theoretical knowledge that I can take with me throughout my journey.&nbsp; I also benefit from having access to the wider community of Lean Tree, as everyone I have spoken to, are approachable and supportive.\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"gb-headline gb-headline-68ad8f12 gb-headline-text\"><strong>Financial Stability<\/strong> \u2013 My apprenticeship also enables me to earn while learning, giving me the ability to start saving money\u202fand providing more financial independence at a young age. Also, I will have no debt from loans once my apprenticeship is complete.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"gb-headline gb-headline-4b955eb8 gb-headline-text\">Do I think I made the right decision?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"gb-headline gb-headline-7637b35d gb-headline-text\">I know I did! Whilst the degree apprenticeship process was initially challenging and, yes it is a different experience to some of my peers at Uni, my apprenticeship has provided me with the opportunity to learn and develop while gaining valuable industry experience.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"gb-headline gb-headline-6fd749f8 gb-headline-text\">I appreciate that I have been lucky to find Lean Tree, a company that supports me in both my personal and business growth, and a University, in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.staffs.ac.uk\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.staffs.ac.uk\/\">Staffordshire University<\/a>, that has provided me with a great learning opportunity that will help me to develop.&nbsp; I look forward to continuing my apprenticeship journey.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Deciding your future path post-school is a big decision.&nbsp; Most of my friends were choosing to follow the more traditional route to University, whereas it was not such a straightforward decision for me.&nbsp;&nbsp; I knew I wanted to continue learning but, unlike many of my peers, the thought of spending another 3 or 4 more &#8230; <a title=\"How I Made the Best Decision For Me: Choosing an Apprenticeship Over University\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/leantree.co.uk\/how-i-made-the-best-decision-for-me-choosing-an-apprenticeship-over-university\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about How I Made the Best Decision For Me: Choosing an Apprenticeship Over University\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":1954,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"Choosing an Apprenticeship Over University | Lean Tree","_seopress_titles_desc":"Find out why Mack chose to undertake an Apprenticeship with Lean Tree over attending University. What has he gained from the Degree Apprenticeship route?","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leantree.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2016"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leantree.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leantree.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leantree.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leantree.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2016"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/leantree.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2024,"href":"https:\/\/leantree.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2016\/revisions\/2024"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leantree.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leantree.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leantree.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leantree.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}