Providing work experience for local students 

Increased confidence, enthusiasm and transferable skills are just some of the benefits being enjoyed by five new apprentices at Service Birmingham. Service Birmingham is Capita’s joint venture with Birmingham City Council.

The 18-year-olds – Alex Bradley, Alex Lawton, Katie Adkins, Nasir Uddin and Inam Aftab – joined Service Birmingham in September 2009 on a three year programme. All come from Birmingham schools and were seen as under-achieving for a variety of reasons.

Their placement at Service Birmingham is part of the organisation’s ongoing commitment to the schools it works with and is a key part of its Corporate Social Responsibility programme.

Kim McCarthy, who runs the apprenticeship programme for Service Birmingham, said: “The apprentices get a lot from their placements with Service Birmingham, and the company gets a lot from them in return. When they come to us they are often quite shy and lacking in confidence and may not have had the most positive experience at school. As well as giving them useful, career-enhancing training and work experience, we believe the confidence boost they get from working in a supportive environment and seeing their skills blossom is worth even more.”

And the apprentices themselves agree. Alex Bradley is currently working on the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) Telecoms which is being implemented as part of the council’s business transformation programme. He said: “Working here has really increased my confidence a lot, as I have to deal with customers on a daily basis. I’d really like to work as a network administrator back in a hi-tech school and this work experience and training is giving me a really good background for that.”

Inam Aftab was encouraged to join the scheme after a presentation to the 6th form at Sheldon Heath School by one of the previous year’s apprentice intake, Nakash Shah, an ex-pupil. “Nakash was very shy when he came to us,” said Kim McCarthy, “but he’s proven to be a real ambassador. His former teachers were amazed at his confidence when he returned to Sheldon Heath to talk about the scheme.” Nakash is currently working with Link2ICT at Fort Dunlop along with another two of last year’s apprentices, Lauren Jones and Joel Bridgewater.

The apprentices are following an LSC-funded advanced apprenticeship programme via training company Zenos, with on the job experience provided by Service Birmingham.

Kim said: “The apprentices all benefit from the experience of working here. They get out of it what they put in. One indicator it’s working for us, is that I’m always being asked by colleagues when one of the apprentices will be available - proof that their work is adding real value to Service Birmingham and our clients.”