A
female
age
30-35,
*angerously Enthusiastic.
writes:This isn't a relationship question but I'm hoping you all will have some super advice. So I'm 17 (the age says 18 at the top, no idea why)And I'm currently in my second year of sixth form (sixth form lasts 2 years) so I have till June till I'm done!I'm currently studying English Language, Media and Sociology. It's fair to say I didn't do great in my first year. My results where C D E. (u is a fail)I had a hard year. My mother had died and I'd just moved out of my stepmothers as she was very abusive. So anyway, this apprenticeship has just come up and its with the local council. My dad works for them and is very high up in the ranks. So I got through to the interview stage as I thought interview experience would be good. I've also applied for Uni but I would be taking a gap year to look for a good.career but if I didn't find one uni would be a back up. The interview for the apprenticeship went really well. Only downer is that it does finish after 2 years and there is.no job after. However, the employees said throughout the apprenticeship they would be constantly looking for a job for me. With the council, they also put you through university, as my father had been and now he is going back a third time to do his masters.Does anyone have any comments on what they would do. I should add the apprenticeship is payed work at £110 a week and is in businesses administration.Thanks.
View related questions:
moved out, university Reply to this Question
Share |
Fancy yourself as an agony aunt? Add your answer to this question! A
female
reader, k_c100 +, writes (4 December 2012):
 What worries me the most is the amount they are paying you for this apprenticeship, that is WAY under minimum wage (if you were doing a 7 hour day that would be around £3 per hour!). So you will have a very poor standard of living for 2 years with no guarantee of a job at the end of it. And no money at the end of it either. I presume you will still live with your parents, but will they expect a contribution to living costs? Lets say they will, you are not going to have much left to do the things a normal young woman should be doingg. You are not going to be able to save any money either to move out, so I see this as a cycle of being stuck living with your parents on a low wage.
Finding a 'good career' as you say is very difficult without a degree, and all my friends that I know who didnt go to uni are all now regretting it (aged 25/26). At first they were 18 earning good money, watching us students struggle, but now they are on similar money to what they used to be earning whereas us graduates are doing jobs we enjoy on good money. The girls that didnt go to uni are bored of their jobs with no alternatives to go to because they didnt go to uni, and the jobs they would like require a degree.
I think if you are confident you can pull your grades up a bit (otherwise you will struggle to get into uni) then uni is the best option - it gives you so many more opportunities and possibilites for your future. Whereas if you take this apprenticeship it seems like a big risk, with 2 years of truly horrible pay. And you have to keep in mind the economy (yes boring I know) - public sector is in decline, huge redundancies are being made around the UK in the public sector and councils are one of the worst areas hit because there are too many admin staff pushing paper around and not actually doing much use.
I know that is harsh, and we all need councils and council staff mosty do a great job, but we simply have too many people doing too few jobs. So you would be taking an apprenticeship for awful money in a sector that is in decline - not the wisest move. A more clever idea would be to simply go to uni straight after school if you can, get your degree done and dusted then you can worry about what to do next. It doesnt really matter what the degree is in, it sounds like English is your best subject so I'd recommend that, there are a lot of uses for an english degree. Having a degree is what is most important to employers, not what the degree is in. My degree was fashion and textiles but I ended up in autmotive marketing, the complete opposite!
So in short you would be taking a very badly paid job for a long time (2 years is a long time) doing something that wouldnt give you many skills (admin can be done by anyone, you wont learn much) with no guarantees of a job at the end of it. And to top it off you would be learning some basic admin skills in a declining sector where redundancies are going to be made frequently over then next 2-5 years.
If I were you I wouldnt do it, I think you are selling yourself short if you settle for this.
|
