After leaving college with A Levels, I automatically assumed my path was to go straight to university. With members of my family having taken this route, I also wanted to follow in their footsteps.  

I started university through the Coronavirus pandemic, and this proved challenging. Universities had been forced to deliver lectures online - they were only just trying to figure it out as much as students, but this was very obvious. I felt I had little support from the university and found it a struggle - I was completely lost.

Whilst passing modules I was not enjoying university at all and didn’t feel like I was developing any skills or transferable knowledge.

I became completely bewildered with the situation.

As I was almost accepting defeat, I saw a vacancy at Halton Housing for a new Digital Marketing Apprentice. At first, I was apprehensive, but I was also intrigued, and looked into the role.

Halton being my local borough, their work and morals really resonated with me. Working within a Marketing and Communications Team was always my end goal on completion of my degree so the opportunity to achieve this while earning a qualification sounded amazing. Despite my initial hold ups, I decided to apply and take the jump, and was delighted when I was offered the position.

I feel making the change from attending university to being an apprentice was the best decision I have made.

I was also honoured to be shortlisted for Apprentice of the Year 2022 at the Halton Business Awards, a real highlight of my apprenticeship. Sadly, I never went on to win but my fellow apprentice, Olivia did. I was delighted for her. 

I have now completed my initial apprenticeship and gained my Level 3 qualification with a distinction. I have learned so much more in the two years I have spent at Halton Housing than I ever could have learned at university while struggling so much. Working within the team and putting my knowledge into practice has given me a much deeper understanding and greater knowledge than I ever thought I would achieve so early on.

Halton Housing has now given me the opportunity to return to university but as an apprentice. Achieving a degree has always remained one of my goals but I can now do this while still developing my skills within the Marketing and Communications Team.

I have now started at Aston University as a Degree Digital Marketing apprentice; my current two modules are based on core digital marketing and general marketing. So far, I have begun to develop on my current knowledge by looking at topics such as ‘evolving marketing’ in more depth. The important difference to a conventional degree so far has been that we get the opportunity to link all teaching back to our role in our own organisation and how it could support us in the role. In each webinar, we have the time to discuss practical applications of knowledge and how we are going to apply new academic knowledge to our organisation in assignments.

I feel privileged that Halton Housing has invested in me, and I look forward to continuing to build my career with my colleague's support.

I would urge anyone to apply for an apprenticeship! I feel it is the best route to get the most out of your learning as the application of knowledge really helps you to understand in much greater detail and give you a different perspective of the topics you are learning about. Another huge benefit for me is that I am now not only debt free from my new degree apprenticeship, but I am also earning the national living wage while doing it! You will often find that most businesses only pay the national minimum apprentice wage whereas all Halton Housing apprentices earn national living wage from the start.

Find out more about apprenticeships at Halton Housing.