This week, you’ve heard a lot from our apprentices and, as their trainer, I’m extremely proud of what they have achieved so far.
As a rule, most companies offer some sort of training initiative (whether internal or external) to help their employees progress their careers. But for me, working in learning and development means so much more than just lessons and tests – it’s about taking your students on a journey.
I’ve been training colleagues since 2012, but jumped at the opportunity to put together our apprenticeship programme; and the best bit is that I get to train them.
One of the most enjoyable parts of my job is seeing how people develop throughout their journey. Not only do I get to play an active part in helping them to progress their careers, but I also get to see their confidence and self-belief grow and grow.
So, as Apprenticeship Week comes to a close, I hope that we’ve inspired you to keep developing opportunities for your employees, or to take up a new challenge yourself. I’ll leave you with Stephen Watson, one of our Licensed Conveyancer apprentices, who has more details about how his development experience is helping him to progress his career.
“I started my career at My Home Move as a Senior Conveyancer in May 2015. Before joining here, I’d worked in conveyancing and residential services for over 10 years, so having gained the experience, I knew I wanted to go for the professional qualification.
“Before joining My Home Move, I had researched how to become a Licensed Conveyancer myself, but it always seemed unobtainable. Gaining the qualification can be quite expensive, particularly if you can’t find financial backing from an employer. It also seemed daunting to have to juggle working full-time with study, as well as committing to self-study and classroom based learning in my free time. So when we launched the Licensed Conveyancer apprenticeship, I jumped at the opportunity.
“Because the practical experience, as well as the training and the assessments are held in-house, studying is a lot easier than I had thought it would be and my qualification is fully-funded by My Home Move.
“It’s been a really great experience so far. All of the apprentices are really fun to work with and because we’re from different parts of the business, or different offices, we can all share our experiences and have built a nice community that we’ll take into our working relationships. Karen, our trainer, is really great at getting us all to work together and encourages us to apply the theory we learn in the classroom to the roles that we do every day, which really helps to link everything together.
“Taking the apprenticeship means I’ll be able to specialise in more technical roles across the business, and possibly progress into a Compliance role in the future. Above everything, it has given me confidence as a conveyancer. When I’m talking to other solicitors as part of my role, I have the confidence to liaise with them and the knowledge to speak with authority. Training to be a Licensed Conveyancer has also given me the desire to push myself further and it’s definitely something I would recommend to others.”
To find out more information about our apprenticeships, and all of the other opportunities we have to progress your conveyancing career, visit www.My Home Move.com/careers.