Uptree

King-David learnt about Uptree during sixth form. One of his friends heard that he was interested in completing an apprenticeship and asked if he knew about Uptree.

“He said, ‘it's a network where we can attend multiple events, meet employers, just network with like-minded people like yourself in sixth form, trying to get an apprenticeship as well’. I thought it does sound a bit too good to be true. I was thinking ‘totally free, food provided as well, are you sure?’. But they sent me the link and I applied to as many events as I could. I didn't really have much hope in terms of getting accepted onto these events, ‘cause I thought about how many students must apply to these, and they look very prestigious. But to my surprise, I got accepted.”

The first event that King-David attended was with Shawbrook. Being able to network with a plethora of employees at the event opened his eyes to the possibility of working at Shawbrook.

“I was honestly really surprised and shocked in a good way, of course, because first of all, they served us breakfast and lunch, but moving on, the way they presented everything was very precise, it was very clear, it was very easy to understand, and we got to network with all of them: managers, current apprentices, just regular colleagues, and we even got a talk from the chief compliance officer. They just spoke to us about the apprenticeship programme, what kind of work we'd be getting up to and it was really informative.”

King-David said how attending the Uptree events helped him to develop his confidence and communication skills.

“I went to multiple events, which was really good for me and my confidence. Just going there by yourself and being able to approach people and approach students as well… You do get to network and you do get to build up these skills that you are going to need if you do want to enter the workforce, especially at a young age.”

“At the Shawbrook [event] I spoke to the CEO… I was making a lot of friends at these events and we approached the CEO and he invited us into his office, and we just asked for regular career advice and tips, and just how to succeed in life really, cause he's the CEO. He gave us some great tips, great advice, and I was really shocked about how humble he was. Just speaking to him made me realize, ’wow, everyone's just human’... That definitely helped me to speak to these customers because again, I feel like we are all the same. If a CEO can show me such humility, a regular customer can as well.”

By attending the Shawbrook event, he was fast-tracked to their apprenticeship assessment centre.

“The biggest thing that stood out to me was, of course, being able to be fast tracked at Shawbrook… [it] made me think, ‘OK, I've actually got a chance here’. Because I wasn't as confident as I am now in all of my skills.“

From there, King-David was offered an apprenticeship role. Getting experience with Shawbrook also made his transition into his apprenticeship a lot easier.

“I actually made friends before I joined the company, because at the event, we met the current apprentices, they showed us around the office and we got to network with them. I took their LinkedIn and we just began chatting from there. It was great to see familiar faces around the office, they welcomed me… and it is just one big family now.”

“Even in terms of meeting with the talent acquisition leader at Shawbrook, when it came to the assessment centre, it kind of eased my nerves a little bit because it's another familiar face that you're seeing and conversing with, so it definitely helped hugely.”

King-David has said how grateful he is for Uptree opening doors to allow him to get a taste for different industries.

“I'd say it made a big impact in terms of me deciding what I wanted to do in the future by being able to visit so many companies… Being able to view so many different sectors in the workforce, it just made me realize ‘OK, this is what I don't like about this industry, this is what I like about this industry’ and it allowed me to narrow down what I actually want to do in life and what I'd want to get an apprenticeship in. I'd say it immensely helped me decide what I'd want to do for an apprenticeship as well as just in the future, because now it has given me a strong foundation of where I'm taking my career, which is quite unique for someone of my age.”

King-David is currently completing a Business and Retail Banking Apprenticeship with Shawbrook. During his apprenticeship, he’ll have three rotations, covering consumer savings, consumer lendings and financial crimes.