Life as an Apprentice at Rowans Hospice Charity

As well as offering some very exciting careers at Rowans Hospice Charity, we take great delight in taking part in Apprenticeship schemes. For us, these schemes provide a very important stepping stone in helping people to start their journey within the Charity sector whilst learning and developing their skills. To highlight National Apprenticeship Week we spoke with Cara who is our current Marketing Apprentice and Joe, whose journey at the Charity began nearly five years ago when he joined as an Apprentice within our Finance team.

Meet Cara:

“My name is Cara and I am 20 years old. I am studying Digital Marketing at Highbury College and I am so grateful to have this amazing opportunity at the Rowans Hospice Charity. My main roles include updating our social media channels, updating our website with events and blogs, and supporting the Charity with any Marketing materials required. I am learning so much in my role and at college and I am very excited to progress in my career.

I chose an Apprenticeship as I prefer to learn on the job rather than in a classroom. My college course runs every six weeks, for a week, and I complete this virtually on Microsoft Teams. For the other five weeks, I am full time at the Charity. I am currently about halfway through my year and a half long course and I am very excited to qualify later this year.

I would definitely recommend an Apprenticeship as it gives an amazing insight to the working world rather than just learning the theory. I have been involved with some of the Charity’s well-known events such as Moonlit Memories and Lake of Lights and I enjoy putting what I am learning to use.”

Meet Joe:

“My name is Joe, I am 21 years old and have been at the Rowans Hospice Charity for four and a half years. I am now a qualified Finance Assistant after completing my three and a half year Apprenticeship last year.

The course I completed was a Finance AAT, I did one day at college each week and the other four days working at the Charity. My course was supposed to be for three years however was extended to three and a half years as College classes had to stop during part of the Lockdown. During this six month period, I worked full time at the Charity and continued to learn and gain experience.

I chose an Apprenticeship as I didn’t want to go to college full time and saw the opportunities at the Rowans Hospice Charity as a workplace and was pleased to find that once my Apprenticeship started, I had a good split of training and working. I didn’t want to sit in a classroom all the time and it’s been good to be able to link the classroom work with real life work. I came away from the Apprenticeship feeling ready to start my role as a Finance Assistant. When I look back I have learned so much over the last four and a half years.

I would highly recommend an Apprenticeship as there is only so much you can learn in the classroom and I gained lots of work experience and enjoyed being in an office environment. If I had to go back to four and a half years ago, I would definitely choose this route all over again.”

If you, or somebody you know, would be interested in learning more about Apprenticeships with Rowans Hospice Charity please contact our Team on hr@rowanshospice.co.uk We would love to hear from you and help you start your career.