For National Apprenticeship Week we are highlighting our current apprentices! Today we have Astacia a 20-year-old Teaching Assistant apprentice from Oasis Academy Oldham. Here is her story:
“I chose to do this programme because I knew that I wanted to work in education, but I didn’t know if I wanted to go to university or not, so I decided to do an apprenticeship to see if I enjoyed working in a school first.
The benefits of an apprenticeship programme are that you can have working experience which will ultimately help with finding jobs in the future as a lot of employers want people with experience. I also think it gives a good insight into what it would look like to work in a particular sector as it may not be suited to everyone and having the chance to work in that field allows you to decide if it’s a good fit for you.
I love knowing that the things I do make a difference in the world and building strong and positive relationships with my pupils makes my job amazing as I know that the work I do with my students will stick with them for life and I want them to be able to reflect on their schooling experience and think positively about it.
My LMP tutor has gone above and beyond to support me, and I feel as though I couldn’t have achieved half the things I did without her support and guidance. As well as my tutor, my employer has supported me so much and equipped me with valuable experience and skills I will carry with me for the rest of my career.
The most important skill I’ve learnt in my course is how to have more confidence and faith in my practice. When I started, I was overly critical of my work and had no faith or belief in myself and now through completing my course my confidence has grown, and I feel that I have developed and improved so much.
Following the completion of my course I plan to become a Level 4 Teaching Assistant and to work with primary school aged SEND pupils as I have a strong passion to work within SEND.”
Best of luck in your apprenticeship Astacia!
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