I’d been working at Paragon on the IT Service Desk for around 18 months, when the apprenticeship opportunity came up during a career development discussion.

I met the Head of Cyber Security to discuss the apprenticeship requirements and decided it was the right choice for me.

I’m studying for a BCS Level 4 Certificate. There’s a mix of on-the job training and classroom learning and it’s all overseen by an external provider. I need to complete ten learning modules, spanning a range of different topics, including network theory, cryptography and security technology. Overall, the apprenticeship should take just over 18 months to complete.

The training is excellent. I really enjoy the classroom time, especially meeting the other apprentices from different companies and learning from industry-experienced lecturers. At work, I feel that I’m bringing value to the team by applying what I’m learning to my job.

The biggest challenge is balancing the study requirements with the demands of a full-time job. I try to set aside a few hours each week for my apprenticeship work but it gets especially demanding around exam time.

Although it’s quite specialist, the apprenticeship also gives me exposure to lots of the different areas in IT and I often work or shadow someone in another team as part of my learning. That’s been really useful in terms of understanding the range of long-term career opportunities available.