Opinion1st May 2019
Amy Brown, Project Manager, is part of a team of seven from Lloyds Banking Group (LBG), who recently attended Ark Academy’s Apprentice Day. The day was an opportunity for year 12 students from Ark to meet representatives from prominent companies offering apprenticeships. These companies then offered interviewing practice, group tasks and help completing apprenticeship applications.
This apprentice day is similar to an assessment centre that LBG would run. It prepares students for the process of applying for an apprenticeship. This is our second year participating here at Ark Academy and it is part of our initiative to help our local community and build links with schools. The mock interviews we do are particularly important, because it’s a chance to practice an important skill, with someone that the students don’t know already and who can give them honest feedback. This is like a test-run for the students to practice their skills and is a great opportunity to encourage the students we meet to apply for an apprenticeship at Lloyds Banking Group.
If you are a teacher or someone working to prepare students for applying for apprenticeships, here’s some of the advice we offer to students during these sessions:
The basics:
- Dress smart and arrive on time
- Eye contact is key, particularly for your first impression when you politely introduce yourself
- Don’t worry if you are nervous, every interviewer will understand this and will try their best to put you at ease
- Be passionate. Ensure you understand the role you are applying for and why you are the best candidate for the role.
- Show that you have knowledge of the business, their vision and our different brands
- Most importantly, be yourself!
How to prepare:
- Most of our questions are based on finding out your strengths. We like to learn about what you are naturally good at so be prepared to show us your strengths.
- We also like to see examples of how you have tackled different scenarios so make sure you are prepared to relate back to your past experiences. Have some examples ready.
Running a session like this is a ‘win’ for the school, because it opens up opportunities for young people to seek out good apprenticeships with prominent companies like ours. It’s also a ‘win’ for us, as events like this help us to find talent that we wouldn’t have access to otherwise. Students here bring new ideas to business, particularly when it comes to digital. The younger generation have a lot of skills that they’ve grown up with that businesses really need. It’s an opportunity for us to help fill roles where we have a business need and we can train people and encourage their special expertise.
Apprenticeships give students a chance to get on the job experience while earning a good salary to go along with training to get a qualification – it’s the best of both worlds.
At Lloyds Banking Group we have lots of apprenticeship opportunities. We’ve got financial services apprenticeships for example operational managers and market solutions advisers, professional services apprenticeships for example project managers, financial analysts and also digital and technology apprenticeships such as software engineers and cyber security risk analysts.
I see a lot of potential in the students I meet at schools like Ark Academy. They’re very ambitious and knowledgeable about the direction they want to head in and we’re happy to support them.
At Ark, we know there is more to success than academic achievement alone. By connecting our students with leading companies and running targeted employability and careers programmes, we ensure that our students have the confidence, skills and experience to be successful at school and beyond.
Ark is working strategically with a range of partners to increase the number of students accessing high quality apprenticeships. We work with companies such as Capgemini, WhiteHat, Google, EY, NHS, Civil Service, PwC and many more. If you are interested in working with us, please get in touch with Emma Thomson, Partnerships Manager, on emma.thomson@arkonline.org to find out how your business can support Ark.