Uptree

Zain came across Uptree via LinkedIn and was able to get work experience and attend events preparing him to apply for apprenticeships.

“My name is Zain Ahmed and I’ve just left College. I was doing 3 A-levels, doing computer Science, Maths and History and I’ve recently got into a Degree Apprenticeship at JustEats for a Software Engineering position. I found out about Uptree through LinkedIn. Through Uptree I was able to get work experience at JP Morgan and even attend a FuturesUP event as well. I was able to learn more about apprenticeships and see what corporate life is like. It was a nice experience.”

His interactions with Uptree changed his career aspirations, providing him with more information about apprenticeships.

“My interactions with Uptree changed my career aspirations because when I went to these events, I knew a bit about apprenticeships beforehand but I didn't really look into it because I was more focused on doing my A-levels. When it was time to pick between doing what comes after A-levels, seeing how everyone says to go to university, going to the events shows that you don’t have to go to university there are also apprenticeships as well. With these events there’s a lot of information and people that are doing apprenticeships as well are talking at those events and giving their experiences which opened my mind up to apprenticeships and gave me more insight as well. That led me to doing more reviews of them and obviously applying for apprenticeship roles.”

Zain’s advice to other young people is don’t feel forced into going to university, be resilient, do your research, and utilise the people around you.

“I think the main thing is that you shouldn’t be forced into going to university. If people around you are all going to university you shouldn’t really force that kind of peer pressure that you have to go. I think it is totally fine to take a gap year or do something else in the meantime to see what you want to do and even in your gap year as well, you can work, get work experience and figure out what you want to do. I think that’s one of the main things that people need to realise.

Another thing is being resilient. I think that is one of the most important things when it comes to applying to universities, apprenticeships mainly. Even if you get a rejection, just keeping that resilience and never giving up is one of the most important things and that applied to me a lot for my apprenticeship application process because I received a lot of rejections but I didn’t really give up as much, I kept going through and it paid off in the end. So I think resilience is one of the most important things.

Do research first and then see if there is work experience in that field. Getting that work experience will actually get them to have a feel for if they actually enjoy the field because you can enjoy the subject but then when it comes to actually working in that field you may not like it.

One thing is to utilise the people around you, whether that is teachers, to help you. I had my form tutor helping me with my application process for degree apprenticeships, checking my CV, final check-ups before, and grammar mistakes. Even him just asking me how my application process was going, to support me through that process. Or whether it is with Uptree… utilising all that to help you, I think that is the best tip ever.”