Carla Whiteford, a technology apprentice at Barclays, is achieving a lifelong ambition to study for a university degree in computing – and she is earning a salary at the same time.
Whiteford, who lives in Glasgow, initially started a traditional university degree after leaving school but came to realise that it wasn’t for her. She then saw the advert for the Barclays apprenticeship scheme on a job website, applied and was accepted.
The big difference, she says, is that Barclays offers so much more support than she received at university. “You’ve got your own team, the wider department, there are so many people to support you, whereas at university I feel that you only have your tutor and that’s it,” she says.
Whiteford joined Barclays in 2018 as a software developer in the bank’s colleague channels department, where she is already helping to write code for tools and applications used to help on-board prospective clients.
Her time is split between work and training – this involves spending one day a week at Glasgow Caledonian University studying subjects such as coding, ethics and databases, though this has been virtual during the lockdowns. She will graduate in 2022 with a BSc in software development for business.
She expects to stay in the same department throughout her apprenticeship. “We still get plenty of exposure to other teams through collaboration,” she says. The bank also ensures apprentices have access to talks and presentations to widen their knowledge of the business.
One aspect of the job that Whiteford particularly enjoys is the certainty involved in software development. “There is a right way and a wrong way to do things, and when you get it right you have a sense of satisfaction,” she says. “Each time, it builds your confidence. You are proud of getting it done.”
When she qualifies, Whiteford will continue to be employed – she will move to the new central campus that Barclays is building in Glasgow, which is scheduled to open later this year and will be a workspace for 5,000 people.
Each year, Barclays recruits hundreds of apprentices, not just school leavers, as many might expect, but candidates of any age and from a wide range of backgrounds.
The bank runs foundation apprenticeships that last two years across the organisation. These apprenticeships are equivalent to A-levels. There are also higher apprenticeships, such as Whiteford’s, which offer university-level or professional qualifications and can take up to four years to complete.
As part of the support offered to apprentices, they are teamed with a mentor in their area of interest, who encourages them to think broadly about their abilities and their work. The coach aims to guide candidates into a field that best suits them.
Manchester-based Joe Hunn decided to apply for a Barclays apprenticeship after taking his A-levels, and is now studying for a foundation qualification in process improvement. The two-year apprenticeship leads to a Six Sigma qualification, a management method that helps organisations boost their efficiency.
“Six Sigma allows us to gain an insight into whether a process needs an improvement, such as whether we need to implement a robot on the process, or make a small process amend to change the number of people doing something,” he says.
Hunn spends 20% of his time studying, which involves spending two or three days a month with a training company and half a day a week on self-based learning. The rest of the time he is applying these lessons to his everyday work.
The study sessions are led by a trainer who also guides the apprentices in developing a project for their final assessment. This involves each apprentice making a presentation to an examiner on their course project and sitting a 40-question multiple choice paper. Hunn is so enthusiastic about the opportunities opening up to him that he says he may go on to do a higher apprenticeship degree with Barclays.
Peter Josse, chief information officer at Barclays UK, says the bank’s apprenticeship programme, now in its 10th year, is vital in helping the company make sure it has a diverse pipeline of talent. It makes particular efforts to recruit apprentices from a wide range of backgrounds.
“Our apprentices are the next generation of leaders across Barclays – they have a huge impact across the bank. From a technology perspective, they can get involved in the delivery of major projects, technical change, or even end up becoming a key member of one of our technology teams.”
For Whiteford, as well as enjoying her role, one of the great benefits of the apprenticeship is that it offers a chance to study while being paid. “That really appealed to me,” she says. “As well as that, it’s a relief knowing that I’ll have a degree saying I’ve done four years at university. And I’ll also have four years of industry experience to go with it. I think that’s a strong position to be in.”
