Top tips and advice for a successful apprenticeship - for employees and employers.

Top 3 Tips for undertaking a successful apprenticeship.

 

Co-owner of prestige auto service centre The Garage, and Motoring Editor at the RACV, Andrea Matthews brings a wealth of experience to the automotive arena. Here, she offers her top three things to think about before you dive into an auto apprenticeship.

 

1.  One of the most important aspects is to understand whether you're undertaking a full apprenticeship with on the job training, or whether you've enrolled in a programme where you're working towards a Certificate III and there's limited scope for training within a working environment. It's definitely a good idea to find an opportunity where you can get a good mix of on the job experience as well as training at a college.That just sets you up for success when you're used to working in an automotive environment once you've got Certificate III qualification under your belt. So a good mix of on the job training and theoretical training at college is probably a really good idea to look for an opportunity there. 

 

2.  Another idea is to think early about work placement opportunities. Before you've secured an apprenticeship, perhaps even as early as year nine and definitely in year 10, if you're looking to get an opportunity to do some work experience…. Perhaps you've got your two week block or you're looking for a day, or week placement, make sure that you give yourself plenty of time to get in and see the employer that you’d really like to go and work with and be prepared to do perhaps a trial session to see whether you get on with that workplace and also whether that workplace sees that your aptitude and wants to work with you. It’s much better to be able to have a bit of a trial situation, and learn to work together rather than just expecting that somebody is going to give you a placement or a work experience opportunity without seeing you in action first. 

 

3.  And then it's always good to have some different things on your resume for when you go and talk to a prospective employer... so anything where you've done something extra-curricular, whether it's the Girls On Track programme or maybe you've got experience with your local CFA - all of those kinds of things will play into your favour when you're looking for a job, because people are looking to make sure that you've got some outside interests and exposure to different environments.