In celebration of National Apprenticeship Week, we are excited to share the apprenticeship journey of Helen Connolly, Bids and Solutions Lead at Lorien, who is currently upskilling through a data analytics apprenticeship. This Q&A delves into the motivations, experiences, and benefits of undertaking an apprenticeship while employed, offering valuable insights for anyone considering a similar path.
What motivated you to choose this particular apprenticeship?
I was already using data as part of my role and I had done some ad-hoc training relating to data analysis and visualisation previously, but I was really interested in how I could develop my skills and bring something new to my work. I really like finding meaning in data and using it to tell a story, so a data analyst apprenticeship felt like the right route for me.
I chose this apprenticeship because I liked the variety in the curriculum and could see how the skills I would be learning could benefit my long-term career goals, and the support I've been given throughout the course has been really reassuring.
How does the apprenticeship align with your career goals?
The course teaches a bit of everything in terms of data analysis so it's a great way for me to build up a foundation of knowledge, try out new skills and find which ones I enjoy and would like to pursue further. I had used PowerBI a little bit in my role but, with the things I have learned so far on the course, I feel like it’s levelled-up my skills and I've already seen the benefit in the feedback I've received from colleagues.
Overall, it’s made me feel more confident handling large amounts of data and finding creative ways to make sense of it – something that had seemed quite daunting not so long ago.
Can you share some of the most valuable skills or knowledge you’ve gained so far?
I’m still quite early on in the apprenticeship - I've only been doing the apprenticeship for a few months, but I have really enjoyed learning to write code as it's something I had never done before. We started learning Python and, at first, it was really challenging - literally like learning a brand new language – but, I think once I grasped the key concepts of coding, I realised it will be easier to apply this when learning other coding languages going forward.
Something else I have found really valuable is learning efficient ways to clean data, which can always be a challenge and can be quite time-consuming, but it's an important part of the process. Anything I can learn that makes cleaning data quicker and easier will have a huge positive impact on my role.
How do you balance the demands of your apprenticeship with other personal and professional commitments?
The support I have received from my manager and my apprenticeship provider has been hugely helpful when it comes to juggling other commitments. My apprenticeship mentors have always made me feel like there's someone on hand if I need support or I'm struggling at all and have kept me motivated when it comes to the bigger projects I have needed to do. I've agreed with my manager that I'll set aside a certain amount of time every week solely to focus on my apprenticeship work so that it doesn’t feel too overwhelming and I'm making regular progress.
What advice would you give to someone considering an apprenticeship?
Pick something you're interested in - it will help you to stay motivated. Think about how it fits into your current role and how you'd like to develop personally and professionally and try to find a course that supports your goals.
I'd recommend weighing up different apprenticeship providers as they’re all slightly different and choose one that offers the right learning for you. Also set aside the same time every week if you can, and let your team know that's the time you'll be focusing on your apprenticeship work - this has really helped me to get make progress without getting distracted or feeling like I'm being pulled in different directions.
We’ll be championing apprenticeships all week on our LinkedIn page - click here to see what we’ve been up to. If you have any questions about apprenticeships or have an apprenticeship opportunity you’d like to tell us about, please contact Chris Blackburn.
