Aaron Larkin - IT Apprentice

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WOULD YOU RECOMMEND DOING AN APPRENTICESHIP TO OTHER PEOPLE LOOKING FOR A CAREER IN IT

Definitely! Don’t hold back, if you want to do it, just go for it! At the end of the day, you’re getting paid to learn, and at the same time you’re picking up loads of new skills. You might also get to progress into other areas and make your way up the career ladder.

WOULD YOU RECOMMEND BALTIC?

I would and I actually have! I just think that Baltic are a really good training provider. My assessor Kelly was very kind, she always kept me up to date with what was going on. Whenever I put an assignment in for the online courses, they always got straight back to me to offer feedback. It was really informative. All round, really good people work for Baltic.

WHAT SORT OF DAY-TO-DAY TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES DO YOU CURRENTLY HAVE?

Basically general maintenance for the server and all of the computers. Answering staff queries, managing the website, arranging equipment for different classes, all kinds really. It’s changed a lot because I’ve evolved and improved my skills. When I first started, I was basically just picking up from where the person before me left off, but I got there in the end.

HOW HAVE YOUR SKILLS IMPROVED?

They’ve improved drastically. I’ve picked up a lot of new IT skills – some things I’d never even heard of beforehand! I had a little bit of knowledge before I started; I knew how to fix printers and things like that, but it was at a basic level. I was thrown into the deep end on my apprenticeship, but I’ve managed to learn everything I need to know.

WHAT WAS YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH ONLINE TRAINING?

I really liked it. I did the training from home, so it was nice not having to travel for my training. With each topic it got more interesting and more involved. I found it easy to put my skills in practice when I got back to work. When I moved onto my level 4 apprenticeship, it got a bit more complex, which felt like a good opportunity to learn new things.

WHAT WAS YOUR FAVOURITE THING ABOUT YOUR APPRENTICESHIP?

I enjoyed getting feedback from my employer. I liked to see what skills I was improving and what they thought of my work. I also enjoyed the online training aspect of it because you get to meet new people and you also get to learn on the virtual machines.