For 16 year old Stacie Hopley from Rhydargaeau and 20 year old Rhys Jones from Drefach, Llanybydder, the opportunity to earn whilst they learned was an attractive proposition, so when two digital apprenticeships were advertised through Antur Teifi’s support arm Telemat IT Support, they leapt at the chance to get involved.
The role was to support the delivery of a pilot town Wi-FI initiative across various sites in Carmarthenshire., which is a project which has received funding through the Welsh Government Rural Communities – Rural Development Programme 2014-2020, which is funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the Welsh Government.
Rhys and Stacey are part of a growing trend amongst young people who choose vocational courses as a route to both to employment and higher education. This trend is reflected in apprenticeship learning programmes increasing by 32% over the past 2 years.
For many young people, weighing up the pros and cons of the different options available to them can be tricky.
Stacie decided apprenticeship was a better option than full-time education
“I wanted to continue learning after finishing my GCSE’s and doing it this way was more appealing to me than going to sixth form college.”
Rhys was already in employment when the opportunity with Antur Teifi arose
“For me, my age was a factor in my decision to go for an apprenticeship as being able to get real work experience whilst gaining a qualification was important to me and being IT related was an even greater bonus.”
Kevin Harrington , Business Development Manager at Antur Teifi says
“ Supporting our community is a key part of Antur Teifi’s social ethos, and has been at the heart of what we have worked to achieve over the past 40 years . Extending apprenticeship opportunities has been a real win /win for us ,giving Stacie and Rhys the opportunity to gain real work-oriented knowledge and experience whilst bringing youthful enthusiasm, energy and skills to the team.”
Working in conjunction with Coleg Sir Gâr means alongside their workplace experience, both apprentices will gain an NVQ Level 3 Diploma qualification in IT.
For Stacie and Rhys the skills they have acquired in just a few months working in an office environment have been beneficial
“Being a part of a team here at Telemat has strengthened my communication skills and time management skills and the projects that I have had the opportunity to work on in such a short space of time have been great”.
