This week marks the 15^th annual week-long celebration of apprenticeships for National Apprenticeship Week. Our Apprentice ambassadors are sharing their stories and achievements all week and letting you know their involvement in providing first-line support to the King’s community.

This year’s theme is ‘Build the Future’, so we’ll also be focusing on how the Service Centre supports the local community by building future careers, supporting job creation and the helping the economy in Cornwall. Since opening in 2015, King’s Service Centre has been recruiting from the local area, developing staff and delivering work experience, graduate and apprenticeship opportunities.

This investment in the next generation has ensured the Service Centre is never short of excellent talent. Thirty-two apprentices have passed through its doors, with over half staying on and continuing their careers with King’s.

Today, we asked Ben Stokes-Reade, Service Desk Manager how he feels the apprenticeship scheme has helped his teams to train, retain and achieve their goals.

“Being part of the apprenticeship scheme has been an incredible success from the very start but never have we felt the benefits more than we have during the pandemic. In what has been an exceptional time our Apprentices have really had to adapt their learning style both on the job and for their studies. Our Apprentices have handled this incredibly well and their attitude to training has allowed overall growth within the team, despite the circumstances.

Having our Apprentices has allowed us to free up development time for both them and the rest of the team. 74% of the Apprentices we have had at the King’s Service Centre are either still studying or have gone into full time roles, either on the Service Desk or on to 2^nd/3^rd line teams. Our most recent success story has been with one of our colleagues who started as an Apprentice, was promoted to a full time Analyst, then Senior Analyst and has now been promoted to a Team Lead. This is a fantastic story and a real testament to both my colleague and the apprenticeship scheme as a whole.

In addition to personal development of our Apprentices, the scheme has allowed us the capacity to invest time in developing the rest of the team. We can plan for Analysts to go and spend time with other teams and gain training in areas of interest to them. This helps them prepare for a time when an opportunity arises in that area. In turn this helps ensure we have the next generation of talent ready to support the business as and when required. Having our Apprentices allows us the time to be able to make this kind of investment, without compromising our service and the day-to-day tasks that must still be done.”

If you are interested in an apprenticeship at King’s Service Centre then please keeping checking the Government website for opportunities