4. Social

While pay can be the most attracting factor of an apprenticeship, a perceived lack of a social life can be the biggest detractor for many school leavers. Take it from me, you’ll have more of a social life with a 9–5 job than being in University full time.

For starters, you’ll have the aforementioned pay to fund all of your events, dates, takeaways and the occasional drinking session. On top of this, both your nights and your weekends will be free from a part time job, so you can do what you like, not a lot of full-time students can say that!

As far as a social aspect within your job, this is nothing to be worried about. With most IT companies being fairly young, most people you’ll be working with are responsibility free and up for many nights out. Kainos goes so far as to rent out a bar once a month and pay for our drinks!

Excluding the number 1 student pastime (drinking), there are loads of other things you can get yourself involved in. Here in Kainos, there are number of societies and clubs that meet up to play games, discuss side projects, and some of the other apprentices and I are fond of going to the Empire comedy club every week!

5. Employee Benefits

Apprentices are not treated any differently than any other employee in the company. Therefore, you are entitled to any benefits that anyone else is. Obviously these will vary from company to company, so I’ll tell you about some of the benefits I get from working with Kainos:

Book Allowance

Training Courses Paid For

Private Health Insurance

Pension Contributions

Free Fruit and Cereal

£250 to spend on any course or class

This list is not exhaustive, but the point I’m trying to make is that you won’t be made to feel like a fake employee who isn't of any value to the company.

6. Opportunity

In line with the last point, you also won’t be treated any differently than other employees when it comes to promotion either. Depending on your performance, you can be promoted to the level that graduates are at within 3 years.

Aside from promotion opportunities, you’ll have the chance to do things you might not in University.

Me giving a workshop to primary school children in W5

You’ll be able to get involved with Tech Outreach activities, encouraging school children to pursue a career in STEM subjects. This can be through workshops, presentations, or like the blog have just read!

You’ll have opportunities to attend tech conferences, travel, present to customers or the whole company, change roles or departments and more. As cheesy as it sounds, the sky is the limit. Anything you want to do, they will find a way to accommodate. If you identify a weak spot, all the help you need to improve will be given to you.