1 month in, 1 month out – my Recruitment Apprenticeship journey

So I finally finished my Recruitment Resourcing Apprenticeship this November, it took longer than anticipated due to Covid-19 but nonetheless, it’s done and dusted.

I left University after completing the 1st year of my degree; it became apparent that I’d rather be at work instead of sat in a lecture hall so I decided not to carry on in higher education as it just wasn’t for me. I came across the apprenticeship at Optima and thought it would be the perfect balance of working and learning at the same time - I was brand new to recruitment so I hadn’t the first clue about it.

1 month in to my apprenticeship, I did my first deal by placing a Maintenance Engineer with a company based up the road from us, it got exciting when I found out that I’d earn commission on top of my basic salary from my input into the process and be rewarded for simply doing my job well. 

I had to balance my time between completing my apprenticeship work and doing my day job and was the only person in the office that had this responsibility. I found that being the only person in that situation really helped me to become more organised and take accountability to plan my own time. I was set deadlines for my NVQ work and it was my responsibility to hit those deadlines each month in order to move forward with my work.

Doing the apprenticeship coursework alongside recruitment helped massively because the work was relevant to what I was doing day in, day out; I found that it was reinforcing what I was learning and each aspect of work complemented each other. Everyone at Optima had useful insight into recruitment which helped me to complete my coursework and they really supported me throughout the whole apprenticeship.

To complete the apprenticeship, I had to complete “off the job” work which was basically anything such as training, coursework, meetings, coaching – anything that would help develop my knowledge but that wasn’t classed as core recruitment. I had to achieve 20% off the job work to be able to complete my NVQ (this basically converts to 8 hours a week or the duration of the apprenticeship). Off the job work is to be completed inside work hours so I had to set time aside to do this whilst doing recruitment too, everyone at work was really supportive of this and even though I was the only apprentice, everyone chipped in to help me with my work when I struggled/had questions.

1 month out of my apprenticeship, I’ve just done my 7th deal by placing a Production Manager at a site based in Oldham. We now work a 4 day week, productivity is thriving in the office, we have 2 new additions and a belting company culture/ethos. 

Being honest, I didn’t see myself as a recruiter before I left Uni, I did a Sports Rehabilitation course and always saw myself in a really active job but since starting out at Opima, I’ve come to realise that I’m a really good fit for this role; I’ve contributed to over £70k worth of business and can’t wait for that figure to continue growing along with my personal growth within the business.

Optima is so open minded and supportive of anything you want to do to better yourself, things such as tailored training and new tech investments are just a couple of benefits to help with your professional development. On more of a personal level, stuff like wellbeing/team building sessions and pub lunches (outside of Covid) are always on hand to keep the fun and supportive culture. 

I’d definitely recommend doing an Apprenticeship or Traineeship with Optima if you’re looking at starting in recruitment, being a small business means that you’ll get plenty of 1-1 time and training opportunities with everyone in the business, you’ll be rewarded for your hard work and you’re always going to be a name rather than a number.