Advanced Modern Apprenticeship

As a 16-17 year old with GCSEs, GNVQs or 'A' Levels, you are about to face a very difficult decision. A decision that will affect the rest of your life and one that will ultimately determine your happiness and your earning potential.

Higher education doesn't suit everyone, including the 'very intelligent'. There is now a widening of choice from a pure academic route to gaining qualifications. Some people need a more practical approach to their development. In fact, if you look around today's captains of industry you would probably be surprised how many of them started their careers in an old type apprenticeship.
James Ideson
Modern Apprentice 

Recognising the gap that has developed in establishing careers for today's young people, the Advanced Modern Apprenticeship was created. However, don't be fooled by the fancy terminology. Although still called an apprenticeship, today's schemes bear no relationship to the time-served systems of old. They are flexible in content, structure and duration so as best to serve you.

But not all Advanced Modern Apprenticeships are the same. In fact for most of them you need to decide from the onset exactly what type of work you want to do. Imagine being committed to work you are not entirely happy with for the rest of your life. So you can see why the right decision is important.


Now try making that decision based on your two weeks' work experience that may well have been in something that you knew you wouldn't like anyway.

The Ceramic Advanced Modern Apprenticeship is almost guaranteed to suit you, because it offers you a foundation phase in which you can really find out what you like, from first hand experiences. At the same time highly experienced mentors assess your abilities and your personal style to help guide you in the direction where you'll be happiest and most likely to succeed.


And while most people think of ceramics as 'throwing a pot', the reality is that the industry employs a huge diversity of skills and experience that are more than a match for any other industry you care to name. This Advanced Modern Apprenticeship scheme provides the opportunity for further development upon completion and must be viewed as a start but certainly not the end.

Compared to any other form of learning you'll find this scheme amazingly flexible. Using Open Learning materials during the foundation phase, you work with your own reference book which is supplied containing everything you need to learn to achieve the level you are working towards. You also have a series of activities that reinforce in a real life situation what you have learnt. By finding out information from your workplace and turning to your reference book you will start to build confidence in your own abilities very quickly.
Your mentor, during the first phase of the programme, provides you with opportunities to gain a broad understanding of the ceramic company you are employed by and the industry in general. On completion of this foundation stage, you progress onto the qualifying stage, during which you gather experience, skills and knowledge of different roles which you can use in your career development.  This is a fascinating stage because you learn such a lot.  You will work towards your chosen NVQ Level 3 goal as well as achieving your Key Skills qualifications.  The progression route is described in the chart below.


The beauty of the scheme is that you complete units as quickly or as slowly as it suits you. Everyone finds that some things are harder to really get to grips with than others, and to be honest we have all had bad spells in our lives when our focus might be elsewhere for a while. Your Advanced Modern Apprenticeship allows for all these facts and still allows you to achieve your full potential.

When you have completed your programme, you will not only have a valuable qualification, but you will have that other vital ingredient without which most graduates find it very hard to get their first job: relevant working experience. Of course you will have been paid to achieve it.

While you are doing your course you'll be gaining valuable experience which is a vital ingredient for your CV. Mind you, hopefully you will want to stay with your employer after completing your programme.

You will have been interviewed and have signed a contract which agrees the training you will received and the commitment both you and your employer will make.

With your contract of employment will be an agreed salary: however, the exact amount of salary is at the discretion of the employer. You may also be eligible for other benefits that the company offers its employees.

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Foundation Modern Apprenticeships | Advanced Modern Apprenticeships