You don’t need to be a graduate anymore to start your career.

Many organisations today are not just looking at graduates to fulfil their recruitment needs but are now turning to apprenticeships and looking to build a platform for future employees.

At UK Youth, we not only provide a base for Learning Outside the Classroom for the young people that visit Avon Tyrrell, but with 20% of our staff workforce at Avon Tyrrell undergoing an apprenticeship, we also provide hands on learning, giving young people the skills and recognised qualifications they need to succeed in the outdoor industry.

Our mission goes beyond preparing our apprentices to fill gaps within the organisation. Our apprenticeships go beyond the basic framework providing additional training and qualifications to ensure the young people who attend our apprenticeships have the skills and qualifications for future careers beyond us. The impact we have on our apprentices is just as invaluable to them as the impact that they have on us and the service we can deliver.

But what’s the appeal of apprenticeships for us?

As a charity working for young people, it is critical to our work that we also work with young people. We learn from them and that enables us to use their knowledge and ideas to develop future programmes and provide better quality provision and opportunities based on what young people need.

Not all young people have a place in mainstream education, nor do they all know what direction they want to go in life, but apprenticeships can often be the key to discovering where their potential is. Our past apprentices have gone on to become teachers, tree surgeons, trainers and even business owners. We have provided them with that platform.

Earn while you learn

Our apprenticeship scheme is an incredible opportunity to not only gain a good range of high quality industry qualifications, but also key skills, experience working with different groups and practical living away from home. This sets them up for future career prospects beyond UK Youth, which many other outdoor centre cannot provide.

How can employers support apprentices?

Jaguar Landrover bring a group of apprentices to Avon Tyrrell each year to work on elements of teambuilding, volunteer work, communication, self-esteem and ownership. It is programmes like these that show how valuable apprentices can be to an organisation and the support and investment that employers give them in order to better their future prospects within the company.