Colin Campbell, former QA Apprentice, blogs about how his apprenticeship gave him a high-flying start to a career, with a salary of over £50,000 pa!
Whilst studying my A levels I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do as a career. During this time I use to build computers and play with technology, but I always saw that as a hobby instead of a career path. A part of me always wanted to become some sort of IT developer/engineer but I was never keen on the idea of going to university.
Then I came across theQA apprenticeshipprogramme that offeredIT qualificationsas well as a work placement. I saw this as an opportunity to get myself into the world of technology and develop my IT skills on a professional basis.
“It really opens your eyes to the working world”
During my time as aQA Apprentice I really learnt a lot. It really opens your eyes to the working world. The practical skills were very useful, but they actually also helped with the soft skills as well. They helped me on how to approach interviews and how to deal with “working-world” issues on a professional level.
With the qualifications I picked up, QA managed to provide me with a work placement at a worldwide travel company as an apprentice with the chance to become a ‘Junior Linux Administrator’.
This was a fantastic opportunity for me which was only made possible via the apprenticeship scheme. I spent time studying at work and eventually was given a permanent role, one year after
that I was promoted and was no longer considered a junior.
Earning over £50k
I am now currently working for the world leaders in online ticketing as a ‘Web Operations Engineer’. With this comes a great wage (far more than I had ever expected) of £50K plus! And the added benefits are…I get to work with some of the brightest minds in IT.
All this success is really down to the QA apprenticeship scheme and the time I spent there studying. I think if you have a passion for IT and prepared to spend some time outside of the classroom studying then you can really reap the full benefits of this apprenticeship.
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