Two Jaguar Land Rover apprentices have featured in the first-ever chat show for National Apprenticeship Week
Isabelle Glass and Harkanwal Sanghera are part of the first cohort of the new digital and technology solutions apprenticeship at the Midland car maker.
In an interview with Louis at Springpod (part of the Classroom to Boardroom series) they discuss the changing face of apprenticeships.
Classroom to Boardroom is a new chat-show series exploring the world of apprenticeships through real-life success stories of apprentices working at big organisations such as Nestle, EY, Capgemini, Accenture, Pret and many more.
Each episode is between 15 and 25 minutes long, and targeted at students aged 13-19.
In this particular episode, Isabelle, who went to school in Rugby, talks about the challenges she faced prior to starting as an apprentice.
She said: “Back when I was in college, there wasn’t much degree apprenticeship exposure - so they encouraged us all to go to university.”
Harkanwal, who attended a school in Leicester, opened up about the stigma and the change in mindset he experienced.
He said:: “My dad wasn’t too keen on me taking an apprenticeship, he wanted me to go to university because there wasn’t much awareness at the time.
"But, as soon as he heard I’ll be working with Jaguar Land Rover, he quickly changed his mind!”
Both apprentices praised JLR’s culture of inclusivity and diversity.
Isabelle highlighted that the firm are keen to increase the number of women in the automotive industry.
She said: “They set up a work experience programme for talented women called Furthering Futures.
"Once completed, those who take it up will be encouraged and supported when applying for the apprenticeship.”
In a recent report conducted by Springpod (surveying 1,500 secondary school students), findings revealed that 40% of students felt it was ‘impossible’ or very difficult to find work experience.
Jaguar Land Rover’s Furthering Futures programme aims to be a step in the right direction to lowering that figure.
Featured employers include Nestle, Pret, Fujitsu, Capgemini, EY, Accenture, ICAEW, Direct Line Group, and JLL.
