My name is Alex Marshall. I am a student at Queen Anne High School in S5.
At the moment, I am working towards my higher qualifications but I also do a school college partnership Foundation Apprenticeship in Business with Administration.
At the moment, I am at the part in my course where I have to do a work placement to gain some real experience in a job that is within the college. I am working in the Internal Communications department at Fife College. This department controls all of the screens in the college that you see while walking around and they also control the student news.
In my placement I’ve had to do things such as giving my input on FCSA merchandise that would be given to students after they take part in focus groups and I also had the opportunity to create questions to ask Fife College’s Digital Engagement Coordinator about her role and things she’s working on.
In my apprenticeship, I have studied administration and business studies. Administration consists of areas such as spreadsheets and word documents to gain a better understanding of how to use them. When I’m studying business it is things such as contemporary business and understanding business, I have assessments for both of these parts of my course to support if I will pass the course or not. This course involves meeting new people, taking part in discussions and sometimes speaking to a group of people.
My apprenticeship has benefitted me a lot, I have learned to be more confident when speaking to people. It’s also improved things such as my time management as some of the assessments are sent out to do in our own time with a deadline, meaning that I have to plan when I will complete it. The apprenticeship gives me a lot of freedom compared to school and I really enjoy it because of this.
In the future I plan to go on to do my HNC and HND both in Business. I have really enjoyed college and the way you are treated compared to school and due to this I’ve applied for my HNC in Business next year. I hope to run my own business in the future.
I would definitely recommend doing a Foundation Apprenticeship as you learn so much from it and gaining the work experience is great. It can also lead you to so many places as I’ve heard from others that they have got their jobs from the journey from Foundation to Modern Apprenticeships! But I definitely do recommend it to anyone who wants to gain confidence, meet new people and to overall enjoy your learning more!
