Are Apprentices the new Graduates?

AGR Development Conference13th March 2014

Jez Brooks

IBM Professional Development Manager

An introduction to me…

Jez BrooksFoundation Professional Development Manager

Graduates – typically hired into consulting (business & technical) roles, sales, business development, data analytics, and software engineering roles

Apprentices – typically hired into technical support, test analyst, application development, customer engineer and business administration roles

Level 3 Advanced Apprenticeship – approx. 18 months plan – Continuous assessments by IBM and OCR

Core modules – learning completed by ALL apprentices regardless of whether technical or business focused

Module Credits Timing

Health & Safety 3 Week 1 Induction

Blue Week9

Week 1 Induction

Technical Fundamentals12 *

Week 1 Induction

Blue Squadron 9 Week 2Induction

Succeeding @ IBM12

First 18 months

FSPE – Foundation Skills in a Project Environment 9

@ 3 months

FCP – Foundation Calling Programme Up to 27

credits to be earned

across these

courses

@ 9 months

PSC – Professional Skills Class @ 15 months

General Professional Skills First 9 months

Apprentices need to achieve 96 credits, consisting of:• 72 credits in professional competence

• 12 credits from 2 mandatory units• 60 credits from optional units

• 24 credits in professional knowledge

Evidence presented through weekly/monthly learning journals kept by Apprentices throughout their programme. This is mapped to required OCR learning outcomes in a mapping document & independently verified by an external assessor.

Level 3 Advanced Apprenticeship – approx. 18 months plan – Continuous assessments by IBM and OCR

Core modules – learning completed by ALL apprentices regardless of whether technical or business focused

Module Credits Timing

Health & Safety 3 Week 1 Induction

Blue Week9

Week 1 Induction

Technical Fundamentals12 *

Week 1 Induction

Blue Squadron 9 Week 2Induction

Succeeding @ IBM12

First 18 months

FSPE – Foundation Skills in a Project Environment 9

@ 3 months

FCP – Foundation Calling Programme Up to 27

credits to be earned

across these

courses

@ 9 months

PSC – Professional Skills Class @ 15 months

General Professional Skills First 9 months

Courses highlighted in RED are also taken by

our Graduates!!

Apprentice or Graduate? Guess who…

Hayley – joined IBM 2010 – test manager for a global financial services client, leading teams in the UK & India.

Andrew – joined IBM 2012 – infrastructure specialist, and SME for network systems and security for a major UK public sector account.

Sadie – joined IBM 2011 – Executive Assistant to IBM European Telecoms sector leader.

“Andrew has been an excellent performer within the team - he is held in very high regard across the account, as was evidenced by the steps taken by execs to ensure he was not poached by [other teams]”

“She is working on one of the most challenging delivery centres… very wide spectrum of work from test analyst to test lead and is so far delivering against all them…results are outstanding”

I have had the pleasure leading alongside Sadie for over a year now… Sadie's capability goes far beyond her years… her knowledge and experience would leave most believing she was a seasoned professional.

Apprentice or Graduate? Guess who…

Hayley – joined IBM 2010 – test manager for a global financial services client, leading teams in the UK & India.

Andrew – joined IBM 2012 – infrastructure specialist, and SME for network systems and security for a major UK public sector account.

Sadie – joined IBM 2011 – Executive Assistant to IBM European Telecoms sector leader.

“Andrew has been an excellent performer within the team - he is held in very high regard across the account, as was evidenced by the steps taken by execs to ensure he was not poached by [other teams]”

“She is working on one of the most challenging delivery centres… very wide spectrum of work from test analyst to test lead and is so far delivering against all them…results are outstanding”

I have had the pleasure leading alongside Sadie for over a year now… Sadie's capability goes far beyond her years… her knowledge and experience would leave most believing she was a seasoned professional.

NAS – Advanced Apprentice of the Year, South Central Region - 2012

NAS – National Advanced Apprentice of the Year - 2013

Finalist – Target Awards Apprentice of the Year - 2014

My advice….1. ROLES – not all are suitable for apprentices, but give them something real to do.

2. EDUCATION – don’t be afraid to re-use graduate ICAP, but add in more on core professional skills

3. RESPONSIBILITY – trust them to deliver, and give them a support network. You’ll be amazed at the results!