Apprenticeship Programme
Posted 17th June 2019
LP Networks launched our apprenticeship programme in 2018, giving school leavers the opportunity to gain skills and experience needed to work in our highly skilled and fast-paced industry.
Apprentices now make up 25% of our workforce, cutting their teeth on our service desk alongside experienced team members.
Choosing to opt for an apprenticeship over classroom study provides people entering the IT industry with valuable, hands-on experience. Daniel, one of our apprentices is glad that he chose to come to LP, “I prefer a more practical approach to learning and having the industry experience will help a lot if I decide to go into a specialist route within IT.” Kai agrees, “You can achieve qualifications, but at the same time earn money and gain valuable working experience at a young age.”
From day 1, LP’s scheme encourages our apprentices to get involved with hands-on aspects of our business. Daniel’s favourite part of the job is getting to use tools that he wouldn’t normally have had access to if he had been in fulltime education, while Kai enjoys talking to people from different companies and using a variety of methods to resolve issues. Things like phone skills and problem-solving can only really be learnt on the job, it’s difficult to get an insight into dealing with customers’ needs when you’re sitting learning in a classroom.
For Daniel and Kai dealing with individual cases where they aren’t familiar with the software can be a challenge, but it turns out that troubleshooting has, so far, been the aspect of tech that Kai enjoys the most. Solving new problems means that he has built up the required knowledge to be able to support clients with similar issues.
Our apprentices don’t just spend their time sitting in our offices dealing with support desk requests, we take them out on the road with us to meet our clients and work on hardware installations. After all, configuring and setting up hardware is as important as ensuring that systems are supported properly. We also futureproof their training, ensuring that they have opportunities to work with the most up to date tech available. The favourite part of Daniel’s apprenticeship so far has been working with AI and VR and has recently his CompTIA qualification.
LP Networks can’t wait to begin training the next set of apprentices, creating experienced and qualified tech professionals, as Kai says “it’s great to land a job with the opportunity of progression without getting a degree.”
If you've read this and thought "hmmm, that sounds interesting, I wouldn't mind doing something like that" check out our careers page and drop us a line