IT APPRENTICES

Sam Foster, Peter Woodbridge and Steven Gonzales start with us today (10^th September 2012) as IT Apprentices.  I think we're one of the first, if not the first University in Scotland to offer IT Apprenticeships.  

 

The new recruits will be working in the Service Desk, Web and Desktop teams – gaining a wide range of technical, practical and customer care skills.  

I’m delighted that we are able to offer three apprenticeship posts in my team for up to two years.  It will give these young adults a great ‘on the job’ learning experience, whilst receiving invaluable training and support from QA (the UK’s leading learning company).  Our new recruits will tap into a wide range of IT expertise at St Andrews and in turn allow us to produce the IT professionals we need in the future.  Steven, Peter and Sam will be joining the University at a very exciting time – as we approach our 600^th anniversary.  We’re the third oldest University in the UK – but we work hard to be innovative, customer-focused and forward-thinking in terms of IT.  I very much hope that they enjoy their experience and relish the wide range of skills and experiences we can offer them.

Sam Foster, me, Peter Woodbridge and Steven Gonzales

Background: 

The Scottish Government has made a commitment to guarantee a place in training or education to all 16-19 year olds.  The aim of this initiative is to make it easier for young people to have access to opportunities and also for employers to have access to a community of high quality young people looking to do an apprenticeship as well as help improve Scotland’s economic future.

The apprenticeships were advertised on the IT page of the ‘Apprenticeships in Scotland’ website as well as being directly targeted towards local schools and colleges.  http://www.apprenticeshipsinscotland.com/jobs/it/

Current clients of ‘Apprenticeships in Scotland’ include:  BBC, IBM, Microsoft, Virgin Media, BT, Volkswagen, Diageo and Fujitsu.

http://apprenticeships.qa.com/