As an Apprenticeship Ambassador Autism Initiatives is committed to providing worthwhile opportunities for apprentices that add real value to our organisation.
To mark National Apprenticeship Week 2020 we’re delighted to share the stories of one of our amazing staff undertaking apprenticeships in our organisation.
Jordan Cockram started with us as an apprentice in September 2019 undertaking a Network engineer, Level: 4 Apprenticeship in our Head Office IT Department. We asked Jordan to tell us how he came to start an apprenticeship:
“I was informed about apprenticeships whilst I was in college as a next step into the world of work, as an alternative to going to University. I didn’t think university was the best way for me to learn as I prefer to be able to put my knowledge into practice within a workplace, as I find this makes it a lot easier to remember what I’ve been taught.”
You’ve been at Autism Initiatives nearly five months now – how have you found it?
“It’s been a brilliant experience, this is the first job I’ve had. Since starting the apprenticeship I’ve improved on my interpersonal skills, as I have to communicate with a lot of different people throughout the organisation with varying levels of technical understanding, meaning that I have to tailor how I explain situations depending on the persons’ technical knowledge. I’ve also gained my CompTIA Network+ certification which has trained me to be able to install, maintain, troubleshoot and support a network, along with understanding the TCP/IP and OSI Model which are key to diagnosing where a fault is within a network.”
What’s the best thing about being an apprentice?
“In my case the best thing about being an apprentice is working with an experienced team, who are very knowledgeable at what they do, and are there to support me if I get a task/request that I’m not too familiar with. If someone was on the fence about starting an apprenticeship, I’d tell them to go for it, being an apprentice is much more than just getting the training and qualification, you get exposure to a work environment, which will help massively when going into another job as you already know how to effectively communicate with members of the organisation and users who might not have the same level of technical knowledge that you do.”
By the end of his apprenticeship Jordan will have completed the following industry standard qualifications: CompTIA Network +, BCS Level 4 Certificate in Network Systems & Architecture and a BCS Foundation Certificate in Network Security
Jordan undertakes a great deal of important tasks for the IT department including repairing laptops and desktop PCs, providing remote support to the members of the organisation for installing printers and diagnosing / resolving issues, and upgrading the organisations computers to Windows 10.
Head of IT for the Autism Initiatives Group, Chris Moore said: “Jordan is a real asset to my team and I couldn’t be more pleased with the way his apprenticeship is going. I would encourage other employers to look beyond out-dated stereotypes of apprenticeships Jordan doesn’t make tea, he make a positive impact to our work.”