Finding an Apprentice Position
1 Prepare
Decide who you are going to target and put yourself in their shoes. What do they want to see in a person? What do they want to achieve as a team who do they want to hire and how do you fit in?
CV
Give your CV a bit of a spruce up - if you don’t have an intro or personal statement it is a good idea to add one. One or two short sentences that describe you and what you want ~ for example:
“Confident/Dedicated/Enthusiastic/Outgoing/Hardworking individual looking to join a web development team as an apprentice. I’ve been making websites for 2 years and / I’ve only been coding for a few weeks but I know this is the career for me/I’d really like to learn skills from the people who actually do the job.
Cover Letter Template
Write out a draft cover letter - this does not need to be long but it is a great opportunity to express your personality and enthusiasm - it’s a longer version of the personal statement from your CV. It is also important that you talk about the company you are approaching in your letter - more on this in the research section next.
I would say 200 - 400 words would be ideal.
Things to include:
Your name
Hello - my name is …. and I...
What you want
I’m looking for an apprenticeship position // I have just completed my pre apprenticeship training in web development and I’m looking to join a team for a work placement to continue my training
Where / how you found them
I found your company through LinkedIn/ My friend, [NAME] said you might be a good company to talk to / I saw on Indeed that you are looking for php developers…
What you like about their company/team/organisation
- I see you work with Adidas/BAFTA/Kurt Geiger
- I was really interested to read about your project with…
- I see you use Drupal/Wordpress/Magento/
- I see you work with charities/education
What training and/or experience you have
- I have completed the Web Developer pre-apprenticeship training in HTML,CSS,Wordpress,Drupal
- I learned xx at school / college
- I built a website for my Aunt/friend
- I have completed courses on freecodecamp/codecadamy/lynda/Treehouse
- I built a php module on my pre-apprenticeship training
What you want
- I’m looking to start my career in web development learning from experts
- I want to learn on the job
- I want to learn in the skills and technologies that people are using right now
Tell them about us
More information about the scheme is available at mwda.uk
Signing Off
Remember to end your letter with something nice and positive that prompts a response - Really looking forward to hearing from you // Hope to hear from you soon // Looking forward to your reply - if you know of another team I could approach please let me know….
Portfolio
Make a website to show your skills - You can follow what we do on the bootcamp to build one in Wordpress or Drupal.
Examples
Alternatives
Alternatively, you could:
- Build one in html and css
- Set up an about.me page
- Create a Branded.me profile
Social
It’s good to include some links to your social profiles, but obviously only link to ones you would be happy for an employer to see. LinkedIn and GitHub are good examples foor professional social profiles.
2 Research
Gather a list of potential companies and organisations from your local area to approach. Five is not enough, you will need to apply to more than 20 places to be in with a chance of finding one who is open to the idea of an apprenticeANDready to hire now. The more companies you approach the better chance you have.
Web search
Search for web development firms and teams in Manchester. To widen your search click through many pages deep, don’t just pull results from the first page. Also use other search engines like Bing and different search keywords and combinations.
e.g.
- Wordpress London
- Web design London
- Web Agency London
- Web development
- Php London
Job Boards
Find out who is hiring by looking at job boards - many of the postings will be from recruiters and employment firms but many web development teams will post their own ads as well. Look for people hiring php, Drupal, Wordpress, Magento as these are the things we are best placed to train
Finding a company this way also gives you something to add to your cover letter - I saw on Monster that you are looking for an experienced php developer so I’m hoping you would be open to the idea of hiring an apprentice as well.
Press
Search for web development firms and stories in the local and industry press - this will give you something to talk about at the interview and also in your cover letter:
- The Drum
- The Register
Meetups and Events
There are always local groups to attend that will connect you to people who can help you find a position - have a look on Eventbright and MeetUp.com