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“Success is not necessarily confined or determined by the nine or ten letters you obtain at GCSE”

Tracy Vardy, director of franchising firm Sim Trava, explains why it's important that school leavers be made aware of what apprenticeships can offer…

Tracy Vardy
by Tracy Vardy
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Tomorrow, thousands of students up and down the country will be finding out how they’ve fared in their GCSE exams.

In the past, upon receiving his or her GCSE results, a young person would be faced with the choice of staying on in education and studying towards their A levels or leaving school and getting a full-time job.

More recently, we would see a disproportionately higher number of young people from lower income families priced out of staying on in education, as a result of cuts to the Educational Maintenance Allowance.

Fortunately, however, this seems to be changing. There has been increased support for apprenticeship schemes from schools, colleges, employers and government, with the latter recently placing apprenticeship schemes at the top of the national education agenda and setting itself a target of reaching 3 million apprenticeships by 2020 [PDF].

By combining full-time work with practical, vocational training, apprenticeships enable young people to earn as they learn, while gaining qualifications and invaluable work experience and without incurring annual £9,000 university tuition fees further down the line.

Hope and opportunity

Apprenticeship programmes offer real career prospects across a range of fields in practically any industry. A young person can potentially become an apprentice in computer programming, law and engineering alike, without having to attend university and get a degree.

At Sim Trava, we’ve been taking on apprentices since 2008 and we have seen firsthand what these programmes can lead to.

They provide hope and opportunity for young people who may be leaving school disappointed with exam results and lacking self-confidence in their abilities. Apprenticeships can transform those with self-doubt and propel them into becoming confident, ambitious, determined and, ultimately, successful people.

We ourselves have been fortunate enough to welcome some really passionate, determined and conscientious apprentices into our business. We’ve watched some of them progress quickly through the ranks to becoming managers and even more senior positions in a relatively short period of time.

We have invested a great deal of time and money into developing our own bespoke 12-month apprenticeship programme, which is designed to ensure that apprentices work to high standards of excellence and deliver a service in line with our core values.

The programme also offers a competitive wage and a fair holiday allowance, plus other perks. We want to see to it that apprentices receive something lasting, in the form of an NVQ in customer service upon completion of the programme.

Third option

Having seen the real value that apprenticeships add to our business, we’ve recently increased our intake of apprentices from 18 to 25 over the next 12 months. We want to continue working closely with schools and colleges to show young people that there is this third option.

Whatever it is that puts young people off further education – be it exam results or remaining in a formal learning environment – we must ensure that young people who have a passion to learn and to succeed are aware that there is an alternative.

Apprenticeships offer young people hope. They show that success is not necessarily confined or determined by the nine or ten letters you obtain at GCSE level. Success is actually about hard work, and what you make of the opportunities you’re given.

A young person’s post-GCSE decision doesn’t have to come down to a choice between earning and learning – it’s very possible to do both. We just need to make sure that the young people picking up their results on Thursday, and contemplating decisions that will impact their future careers, are aware of this.

Founded by husband and wife Simon and Tracy Vardy in 2004, Sim Trava is a franchise business that operates over 20 branches of Costa Coffee across the North of England and two branches of the Canadian fast-food chain, Pita Pit. For more information, about the company and its apprenticeship programme, visit simtrava.co.uk or follow @SimTrava

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