Nottingham Building Society has launched its very first higher apprenticeship programme, with eight school leavers set to begin an 18-month programme with the company in order to gain valuable experience in an office environment.
Valuable experience
Known locally as ‘The Nottingham’, the building society has teamed up Positive Outcomes, a national apprenticeship provider to give young recruits a taste of full-time employment.
The company has a variety of branches, ranging from estate agency groups, sales teams and building society branches, all of which will be experienced by the eight apprentices who were selected from hundreds of applicants.
Each apprentice will be supplied with a mentor throughout the 18 months and will receive an NVQ at the end of their placement. The scheme is something that Anne Mellors, head of HR at The Nottingham, is extremely proud of.
‘‘This is an exciting new scheme which fits firmly within our plans to provide great development opportunities and careers as part of our ambition to be an employer of choice,’’ said Mellors.
‘‘We are delighted to be working in partnership with Positive Outcomes, a national organisation specialising in work-based training.’’
‘‘The scheme is designed to help to develop skills that the apprentices can use to move into permanent posts in the business and achieve long term careers within our team.’’
‘More appealing that sixth form or college’
One of the lucky applicants is Dan Scott, a 16-year-old former student who is now working as a customer services advisor apprentice for The Nottingham in their main office.
In an interview with The Nottingham Post, Scott has talked in detail about his feelings towards apprenticeships.
‘‘I found it a lot more appealing that sixth form or college,’’ explained Scott. ‘‘I feel like in three years’ time when everyone is leaving sixth form and going to university, I will already have the experience that a lot of employers look for.’’
‘‘Obviously getting the experience is a good thing, but I also wanted to work for The Nottingham because it’s such a big company, it will look good on my CV.’’
‘‘The reason I chose to do this is because it is quite a wide range of skills and that is what I want to gain experience in.’’
‘‘We’ve just started our third week and we’re already all building up the skills that we have, which is what I want to do.’’
