As part of the Skills for Life Campaign run by the Department for Education in the UK Government, I was invited to the launch event at the Google offices in St Pancras, London. The event was 10.30am on a Monday morning, and I was excited to meet apprentices and employers from every industry that I could think of.
I’d arrived and put my bags down, there were banners everywhere with many of the apprentice participants on the banners, the advert rolling around TV screens, breakfast, and photo opportunities with banners to advertise the campaign. I quickly settled in and met many people from the Department for Education, various employers including the IT and Rail industry, and two of the apprentices that I went to the advert shoot with back in October 2023.
After around an hour of networking, the event started by a speech from the VP of Marketing for Google UK, she spoke about apprenticeships, how upskilling is important and valued at Google, and their support of the Skills for Life campaign. Then, Gillian Keegan, the Secretary of State for Education made a speech about her time as an apprentice, her support for the campaign to upskill people across the country, and her enthusiasm for being there on the day. Lastly, Robert Halfon gave a quick speech about his experiences with apprenticeships and especially degree apprenticeships (given he’s also the universities minister), and then a panel. The panel consisted of people from all walks of life, it was particularly impressive because the panel included people that had learnt maths at a later stage in life, degree apprentices, participants of the Princes’ Trust, and employers that ran their own business. It really gave a good representation of the cohort of individuals they had invited, and I felt represented and heard.
The event was absolutely brilliant, just seeing so many different apprentices from all walks of life was inspirational to see. I felt included and part of the event as there were only about 150 people that had turned up. I was really proud to attend and represent IBM, and I hope that in the future I can attend more events and become more of an advocate for apprenticeships and alternative paths for education.
