Apprenticeships provide opportunities to learn and gain valuable workplace experience

[ZoeSands]

It was a pleasure to hear Gillian Keegan, Minister for Apprenticeships and Skills at the Department of Education, HM Government talk about her progressive career with our apprentice recruits this week. Hearing hGillian Keegan, MP, UK Government talking to Veritas' Sales Associateser story was inspirational to those starting in their careers and others already firmly established in the workplace. Here’s some background on Gillian: she started her career aged 16 as an apprentice at a car factory in Kirkby and went on to have a successful business career working her way up the career ladder to Chief Marketing Officer at Travelport. Her business career has spanned over 27 years before becoming a full-time member of parliament in 2017. During 2020 she was appointed as the new Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Apprenticeships and Skills. Gillian is passionate about giving people the opportunity to learn and gain valuable experience whilst working. Hence, we asked her to guest speak with our associates.

At the start of the event, Gillian joyfully welcomed Veritas’ apprentices. She discussed how the government prioritises apprenticeships as the UK recovers from this pandemic and continues to invest in the future workforce. Being a former apprentice, she knows first-hand how the Veritas Early Career Programme will kick start career options for the 25 sales associates on the current EMEA apprenticeship intake. Her passion, encouragement, and drive were evident throughout the lively discussion. It was also great to hear why some of the associates had chosen to join Veritas and the positive experiences they’ve received from the programme so far. Here’s what some of the apprentices thought of the talk session:

Valeria Delrio, Associate Sales Representative	I found the session very insightful and inspiring! It was particularly interesting to hear about Gillian’s background as an apprentice and how it has led her to where she is today. As more and more companies are looking for candidates who have something different than the standard degree, apprenticeships are a fantastic way to learn our trade by actually performing the job; to gain hands-on experience and to have the opportunity to apply our skills immediately. My key takeaway would have to be that whatever path each of us chooses, it should be something that we are genuinely passionate about and that will prepare us for our future careers.
Manish Seth, Associate Sales Engineer	From our roundtable with Gillian Keegan, we established the importance an Apprenticeship can have in our career and the foundation of learning it gives us by adapting our skills to real-world practice. It was amazing to talk to someone who had made it extremely far in their career, even after taking a completely different career path than originally chosen. Gillian gave us great insight into the career possibilities that can come my way and more importantly, why it is important to be at the forefront of change and adapt the skills we have to the change’s life brings.
Tristan Thomson, Associate Sales Engineer	Since we are in the middle of completing our IT Technical Sales Level 3 apprenticeship, we had the distinct pleasure to meet Gillian Keegan today, the MP for Apprenticeships and Skills. Gillian shared with us her inspiring career, which began as an apprentice at 16, as well as some valuable insight into her objectives as a member of parliament. We were happy to be joined by Pareto Law, who have been key to orchestrating and organising our learning journey thus far, in partnership with Veritas.

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