10 reasons why apprenticeship is a great alternative to gain skills and experience for the career you want.
December 4, 2020
Apprenticeship is an industry-driven, high-quality career pathway where employers can develop and prepare their future workforce, and individuals can obtain paid work experience, on the job instruction, and a recognized credential. In January, 2021, STAR Women will launch an innovative, power packed program which has been developed to harness the benefits of apprenticeship. The STAR Alternative Access Program (SAAP) will be a flagship initiative of the non-profit which will provide essential core skills training in leadership, entrepreneurship and digital literacy in addition to apprenticeship placement and mentoring for the young women who will be selected to be in the first cohort.
Below are 10 reasons why apprenticeship is a great alternative to learn on the job, gain skills and experience that prepare young people to create or start right on the career path they want:
- Valuable job skills
Perseverance, motivation, leadership, problem solving, communication, teamwork are all valuable skills a trainee can acquire in the field of apprenticeship to progress on their chosen career. It becomes a deep well that a trainee can draw from to build the life she wants for a lifetime.
- Dedicated career support from tutors
Throughout the journey of apprenticeship, facilitators or moderators can give the needed support to the trainee from the very beginning through advices, guidance and even pep talk can even bring out the essential and peculiar gift the trainee might have.
- Build your contacts
In the day-to-day activities of been an apprentice, the possibility of meeting a lot of people from all walks of life be it the rich, poor or the middle class. Making a good name for yourself as an apprentice will be a hurdle to take to be able to build the contacts that will beneficial in the future.
- Gain financial independence
Financial independence is the status of having enough income to pay one’s living expenses for the rest of one’s life without having to be employed or dependent on others. Apprenticeship paves way for an apprentice to gain his or her financial independence without being accountable to an employer.
- Jump start your own job
Apprenticeship gives a trainee the extra help to start her own business or career. With the valuable skills and professional links, she is able to build the dreams she wants.
- Low or no cost involved
Those who embark on an apprenticeship would not be weighed down by tuition fees or debt by the time they finish. In fact, the investor will be paying for the trainee to gain a qualification instead. The cost involved might be the transportation from the trainee’s house to the place of training and feeding but it all depends on the willingness to acquire a skill.
- Strengthen your CV
In the field of apprenticeship, the trainee would have gained at least a year in the field of work, picked up practical working knowledge and skills that will be attractive to any employer who would want her to take a position in their company based on the knowledge acquired. It does not make the trainee stagnant in most areas but the trainee has advantages of other applicants of the same job.
- Get relevant, real world experiences
Apprenticeship is a structured training where a trainee would gain first-hand experience on the choice of apprenticeship she would like to take. Also, the regular reviews with the employer will show whether the trainee is supported and exposed to things that will benefit her, create experience for her and to see if there is progress in the right pace.
- Earn a salary
Apprenticeship gives the opportunity for trainees to become bosses in the future and also earn some money when they are done with their employers. At the end of the apprenticeship, the trainee can pay herself at any time rather than waiting for the month to end before been paid by the employer.
- Work family
Apprenticeship is not only a space that a trainee can work in but it can be a family the trainee will have for a lifetime. Work family inputs apart from technical know-how can really go a long way to help and to keep as golden nuggets not only when they establish their business but other facets of their lives. The atmosphere the trainee can learn in should be one that is a family to even cast the burdens of the trainee away for some time.
Composed by Pauline Otchere-Duah
Media and Communications Assistant
STAR Women
pauline@starwomenhub.org