Jamie Palmer: Scottish Apprenticeship Week works

This week marks Scottish Apprenticeship Week, a unique opportunity to celebrate the important role Modern Apprentices play in the businesses and other organisations in which they work.
By The Newsroom
Published 5th Mar 2018, 06:00 BST
Jamie Palmer was employed by Wave after completing an apprenticeship with the firm. Picture: Sandy YoungJamie Palmer was employed by Wave after completing an apprenticeship with the firm. Picture: Sandy Young
Jamie Palmer was employed by Wave after completing an apprenticeship with the firm. Picture: Sandy Young

Being an apprentice at Wave, a joint venture between Anglian Water Business (AWB) and NWG Business, was a life-changing experience for me, and I’m now enjoying my work there as a full-time employee.

I was studying business administration at Edinburgh College and while I appreciated the opportunity to study, I felt that a more “hands-on” approach to learning would suit me better.

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After seeing the Modern Apprenticeship programme advertised I applied for it, and being successful started work at Wave in October 2016.

The main focus of my apprenticeship was working with account managers to help maximise efficiencies in our customers’ water usage. My customers included public sector organisations such as universities and colleges.

Through my role in active water management I would help identify inefficiencies or problems in our customers’ water usage in order for us to fix them. As a result, I’m proud to have helped save these organisations thousands of pounds in their water bills and also helped to reduce water wastage.

I soon realised that if I applied the same focus on efficiency to my apprenticeship, I might be able to finish ahead of schedule! I therefore worked on similar streams of work across multiple modules at the same time and managed to complete my apprenticeship in December 2017 – six months early.

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Another factor that contributed to me finishing early was proactively getting on with tasks immediately after meeting with my assessor at Fife College each month. Rather than doing an hour here or there, I would always complete a block of work while it was fresh in my mind.One of the highlights of my apprenticeship was the opportunity to travel for site visits and roadshows in Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

I would definitely recommend a Modern Apprenticeship to anyone who feels that they would benefit from a more practical approach to learning, and Scottish Apprentice Week 2018 is a great platform to promote the opportunities available.

Jamie Palmer is 20 years old and was employed by Wave after completing an apprenticeship with the company.