My Apprenticeship - Alivia Dawson
My Apprenticeship - Alivia Dawson
It’s National Apprenticeship Week (10th – 16th February) - a week-long celebration of apprenticeships, bringing people and businesses together and highlighting the benefits of apprenticeships and how they can develop rewarding careers and create a workforce with future-ready skills!But what’s it like to be an apprentice? We spoke to our wonderful Apprentice Business Administrator, Alivia, to find out more…
How did you become an apprentice at Junction Arts
I started as a volunteer. Martha, who was the apprentice at Junction Arts at the time, really took me under her wing and showed me all the volunteering opportunities available to help me gain confidence and useful work experience.
During my time as a volunteer, I was still studying at college, and I felt quite trapped and like I wasn’t on the right path in life. However, Junction Arts was like a lighthouse of hope that guided my way through this time. Volunteering helped me to learn more about the organisation and working in the arts, it became clear to me that this is where I wanted to work and progress my career.
In July 2024, I applied for an apprenticeship and was lucky enough to join the team.
What have you learnt in your first six months?
I can tell that I am a much more positive version of myself than I was before I started this job and the people that I am surrounded by are such a breath of fresh air. It helps that a lot of my own personal values align with the organisation’s values, such as believing that participatory art should be more accessible, definitely in low aspiration areas as this is what I longed for growing up in Bolsover.
So far on my apprenticeship, we have covered, Junction Arts’ aims, purposes and visions, Government regulations that apply to our organisation, internal policies made by the employer, that staff must abide by. Also market forces, policy and regulatory changes and supply chains. I have gained IT, communications and minute taking skills.
How does the team support your apprenticeship?
To complete my college work, sometimes I require insights from different areas of the team. I must say, they always go above and beyond to give me support so that I can give answers to the best of my ability and knowledge.
I find this is also a common tool that they use when reporting or discussing issues, they call it ‘hive-mind’, which is where the full team gives input and suggestions to help other areas of the team. Another phrase they use is ‘divide and conquer’ which is a perfect example of the team’s willingness to help one and other by breaking down a task in order to complete it.
Rhianna, who is my line manager, is such a caring and considerate individual. She has packed so much experience and so many learning opportunities into my time here already. She has taught me administration tasks such as how to process invoices and how to respond to any enquiries in a professional manner – as well as general skills, such as how to manage my time better and try new approaches because everyone’s mind works differently.
What would you like to do after your apprenticeship?
I would like to gain a wider field of administration knowledge and work my way up within Junction Arts, to a role such as ‘Administration Officer’. I hope to be working full-time to support the charity as we are never short of things to do.