A
female
age
26-29,
anonymous
writes:I started my apprenticeship in May 2015, my role is a Business Administration Apprentice at a company that have only just started trading January this year. I thought this would job would be a good opportunity for myself as it is a small business only just starting out and I could maybe work my way up and progress in a few years.However, after 4 weeks, my boss who was training me up quit as she didn't like the job or the director. I now have no boss, no work to complete and no one in the office to communicate with as I am always left alone. I also know that business admin is something I don't want to pursue with. I'm really unhappy here however I don't know how to approach the situation. Do I talk to my apprenticeship assessor first about it?Any help and advice would be really appreciated as it's really distressing. Thank you, in advance.
View related questions:
at work, my boss Reply to this Question
Share |
Fancy yourself as an agony aunt? Add your answer to this question! A
male
reader, mfj78 +, writes (11 August 2015):
Hi
Sadly here in the UK apprenticeships are not what they once were. My dad started out as an apprentice in the 1960s and they taught him a trade, a basis for a future successful career.
Now however young people are often taken on as apprentices and used as either cheap labour, or to allow the company concerned to access grant funding or other financial support under then banner of "aiding young people into employment".
Its often the case that apprentices are taken on and then replaced by another when their apprenticeship ends rather than the company keeping a proven apprentice and paying them a higher rate of pay.
I would be concerned if you are literally being left alone without anyone to support you as from a Health & Safety point of you, and for your own protection and well being, having a person spending large amount of time alone is not ideal. How that relates to the law and employment procedures I couldn't tell you, but as an apprentice I would think it unethical of the company to leave you alone like that.
However, and I assume this is your first (presumably) full time job, you are learning a valuable lesson about work. I was in a similar situation when I was 17-18. I was an office junior for a company with an alcoholic boss, bitchy women of a certain age gossiping and being spiteful to each other, electricians having punch ups in the yard, financial irregularities left right and centre and an office overrun with rats and mice.
Coming to terms with that was hard. Learning the hard way that work can be a hostile, frustrating place as a young adult hurt me deeply. Yet looking back now it put me in good stead for the rest of my career.
I appreciate that you are distressed by the situation but its things like this that make you a more rounded, world wise person. I am sure some of your friends talk confidently about doing X, Y and Z and how they are going to do such and such a job and yet you have the experience to know its not easy to A get a job and B hold down a job let alone progress.
I would talk to your apprenticeship assessor first and see how that goes. As long as you speak to him/her in a way which appears mature, sensible and like you genuinely want to find a solution then the ball is in their court.
I would try and stick it out if you can. On one hand there is no point twiddling your thumbs clock watching as your learning nothing and getting frustrated, on the other hand leaving an apprenticeship early doesn't look good to future employers.
One thing I will say is that in any job one must be proactive, must know how to handle bad situations. Talking generally its sometimes easy to say there is nothing to do or nobody to give you work, but we have to grab the bull by the horns and use our initiative regarding what needs to be done and doing it rather than waiting for an instruction.
Clearly, at the risk of stating the obvious, the fact you don't want to do business admin is something to keep to yourself. Speak to your assessor and offer solutions if possible, not just problems. Don't let this experience put you off that career path.
I started as an office junior doing basic admin, now I run an office. I sometimes wish I had done something else, something more exciting but at least jobs in our field are reasonably common. If I had been a lion tamer, a grand prix driver or a belly dancer I don't think the job centre would have much to give me ;-)
All the best
Mark
|
