applying for apprenticeship?

[young Ed]

i am sure many of you on here have applied for jobs and know what to do, so i ask for your help once more!

i am 15 years old as many of you may know, and as law now stands i have to 'stay in education' until i am 18 years old. when i have finished my GCSE's (equivalent to the older O levels i believe?) which will be next may i then am on study leave and have exams until july when i am on summer holidays and then in the end of august i go back to school. i plan to leave school and go into a farming apprenticeship with college one day a week as that counts as 'in education'.
if you have read this far and understood anything then well done!

i am aware that i need to start looking for an apprenticeship early as it is not easy to find one, so
my questions are as follows:
i have located a local company round the corner from me, they are very large and employ many staff many of which are 18 or 19. would they be likely to be interested in me? i am about to write them a letter asking this same question and explaining who i am and why i am interested in an apprenticeship with them.
they have not advertised that they want an apprentice, how shall i ask them? do i simply state who i am and why i am writing and enquire as to weather or not they may be interested in taking me on as an apprentice? do i include my CV with this letter or do i wait until they have showed any interest, if they do at all?


sorry for all the questions but it is simply a case of a lack of experience and i don't wish to make a fool of my self and lose any chance of an apprenticeship with them as that is where i really would like to spend my 2 years until i am 18
Cheers Ed
P.S: oh and if it is of any use this is the companies website
http://www.fgsagri.co.uk/

 

[Ganymede]

i am sure many of you on here have applied for jobs and know what to do, so i ask for your help once more!

i am 15 years old as many of you may know, and as law now stands i have to 'stay in education' until i am 18 years old. when i have finished my GCSE's (equivalent to the older O levels i believe?) which will be next may i then am on study leave and have exams until july when i am on summer holidays and then in the end of august i go back to school. i plan to leave school and go into a farming apprenticeship with college one day a week as that counts as 'in education'.
if you have read this far and understood anything then well done!

i am aware that i need to start looking for an apprenticeship early as it is not easy to find one, so
my questions are as follows:
i have located a local company round the corner from me, they are very large and employ many staff many of which are 18 or 19. would they be likely to be interested in me? i am about to write them a letter asking this same question and explaining who i am and why i am interested in an apprenticeship with them.
they have not advertised that they want an apprentice, how shall i ask them? do i simply state who i am and why i am writing and enquire as to weather or not they may be interested in taking me on as an apprentice? do i include my CV with this letter or do i wait until they have showed any interest, if they do at all?


sorry for all the questions but it is simply a case of a lack of experience and i don't wish to make a fool of my self and lose any chance of an apprenticeship with them as that is where i really would like to spend my 2 years until i am 18
Cheers Ed
P.S: oh and if it is of any use this is the companies website
http://www.fgsagri.co.uk/

Ed - it's always worth asking and always worth enclosing your cv (in fact I would go so far as to say: definitely always enclose your cv!). I'm not sure if a firm which doesn't advertise for apprentices would necessarily start the scheme up though. I found this site for Kent: http://www.kent.gov.uk/jobs/starting-your-career/apprenticeships - why not try contacting the council and asking for guidance? It would also be worth talking to the college or colleges you want to apply for and find out if there is any help in connecting students with likely employers who run apprenticeships.

I think apprenticeships are a great thing and I wish you well.

 

[stephec]

Well done Ed for showing a bit of get up and go.

Try and find out a name of the person in the local company who really needs to see your application, rather than just addressing it to the boss or HR department.

The good thing is you have time on your hands to make sure your letter and CV are spot on, so hopefully you'll be first in there.

Good luck mate.

 

[shouldbeinbed]

good on you for having the vision and oomph to go for it. As above, council education & careers services could help. Try 'Connexions' if they extend to Wales (I know there's some educational policy & procedure differences across the border) or similar, if not connexions I assume there will be some sort of ~16-23 year old help, job and info service. Round here they're like a young persons job centre and do have lots of support & apprenticeship adverts for local and national companies. All of those should have people with local knowledge and connections to help with selling yourself - good letter and CV - put voluntary work on it and whatever skills and abilities you've picked up in farming so far. I imagine at 15 with a farming background, you've got more practical in the bag than 18-19 yo's coming from other backgrounds.

do your research on companies and tailor your CV and letter accordingly to sell not only what you are but how you will fit in with them. I see a lot of graduates applying for entry level jobs who completely ignore the job they're applying for and tell all about their higher level skills and what they can bring to a completely different role - they are first on the NO pile. Know your audience.

Spelling, punctuation and grammar are important, and not just computer checked - print stuff out, read it and have someone else read it to be sure it is right and reads sensibly, it'll show care & attention to detail & a brain in there (again at graduate level, I weep for the way language is mangled or seen as irrelevant to be checked properly in formal settings)
If you do apply to a job description or find something general on company website about 'our ideal apprentice/worker is.....' and it has a bullet point list of skills and attributes, use those as headings for relevant examples when you contact them.
If things are split into essential / must have-do and desirable / should.... Play the essential cards first then the desirables, even if to your mind they are the other way about.
Be aware that the bigger companies usually have HR departments and very rigid guidelines and policies to stick to, unsolicited applications may well not get a second look but you may get work experience out of it (tho that is getting harder in big co's) and someone on the inside who can help & look out for opportunities for you.
Smaller concerns may be more flexible about taking people on and possibly able to give a better all round grounding.

 

[Dayvo]

Du kan ju svenska!

What about this?

http://www.workaway.info/hostlist-SE.html

 

[annedonnelly]

I think I'd probably ring the local company first. The receptionist will be able to tell you if they have an apprenticeship scheme and how to apply. If they don't have a scheme then you can word your letter in a slightly different way - "I know that you don't normally take on apprentices, but..." and explaining why they should take you. I imagine that there is some government funding available for the company so it's worth being able to tell them about that if they've never done it before.

You say you know they have lots of young workers. If you can, have a chat with some of those to find out how they got work there.

 

[young Ed]

thanks all, some great help!
only way i know they employ lots of younger people is i see lots of big modern tractors driving about and in and out of the farms drive mainly driven by lads who i reckon must still be in their teens
Cheers Ed

 

[Ganymede]

Spelling, punctuation and grammar are important, and not just computer checked - print stuff out, read it and have someone else read it to be sure it is right and reads sensibly,

This is really good advice. I have been an employer too and I have given this advice in the past - it is too easy to ramble on in a letter, also to correct something using cut-and-paste and then forget that you haven't changed the verb or not look to see if you have too many "ands". Someone else reading it through will spot this. Can you get someone to read it aloud to you? That's pretty foolproof!

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

As an alternative suggestion to what seems to be at present a non-existent apprenticeship, how about applying for college to study agriculture and then make connections via that route? My elder daughter has just completed a year's agriculture course at the local college and from day one was in direct contact with prospective employers and easily picked up casual paid employment outwith her "study work placement"; she was offered a few jobs when on the course but has decided to go to university instead.

It sounded like a great course, loads of practical experience and trips to events.

 

[cyberknight]

As an alternative suggestion to what seems to be at present a non-existent apprenticeship, how about applying for college to study agriculture and then make connections via that route? My elder daughter has just completed a year's agriculture course at the local college and from day one was in direct contact with prospective employers and easily picked up casual paid employment outwith her "study work placement"; she was offered a few jobs when on the course but has decided to go to university instead.

It sounded like a great course, loads of practical experience and trips to events.

+ 1 on that .

 

[young Ed]

once again thanks all!
will get my science teacher to read it over as she is head of science and is in charge of employing new science teachers so has read many application letters and CVs etc and i will get my english teacher to read it over for, i hope, obvious reasons

i am keen to spend as little time as possible in any form of college or school etc as i find i hate anything academic and classroom related
Cheers Ed

 

[Ganymede]

Ta-daaaah! http://hadlow.ac.uk/apprenticeships/

Near Tonbridge. (I would personally get the train from Pluckley to Paddock Wood, then cycle across country.)

 

[Ganymede]

once again thanks all!
will get my science teacher to read it over as she is head of science and is in charge of employing new science teachers so has read many application letters and CVs etc and i will get my english teacher to read it over for, i hope, obvious reasons

i am keen to spend as little time as possible in any form of college or school etc as i find i hate anything academic and classroom related
Cheers Ed

Just to add, my chum Colin isn't academic at all, he went to Agricultural College and had a great time. You don't have to do a degree, there are all sorts of useful qualifications.

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

i am keen to spend as little time as possible in any form of college or school etc as i find i hate anything academic and classroom related
Cheers Ed

Basic Agricultural courses will not have much classroom work - I think there was some maths involved in order to be able to work out figures for pesticide measurements, size of fields, mixing of medicines, etc but pretty much everything else was outside e.g. learning to drive quad, tractor, operate machinery that attaches to tractor, safety in the farm, direct work with animals.

Edit - there was other classroom work but it was "practical" e.g. stock identification, learning about crops