How the apprenticeship model results in success

How the apprenticeship model results in success

In the latest chapter of our ongoing blog series, we explain why Credit Style advocate apprenticeships, internships and other career opportunities for young people.

Credit Style has welcomed 16 apprentices through its doors over the years, 11 of whom remain with the business today. We have a long history of success providing opportunities to young people from the Yorkshire region and despite recent challenges, we have stayed committed to this ethos and recruited five new apprentices from Sheffield College within the last year alone.

One of our recent apprentices is Shaun Daley, who is working towards a Level 3 certificate in Law aims to become a qualified Solicitor. Over to Shaun …

I was previously working towards a business admin qualification at a solicitor's firm but did not feel I was getting the experience I needed to reach my goals. Joining a Debt Recovery firm instead might not seem the obvious route, but doing so has given me much more hands-on experience of working amongst a legal team. You get the same opportunity to join a legal department, but instead of answering phones about any queries, I am dealing with more relevant cases that I can build my future career on. 

I have only been here for a month but I have learned so much about case management systems, processes and procedures. Earning while you learn is great but it more the experience that is invaluable; doing a job for real instead of learning the theory behind it. There is still a misconception with some people that apprenticeships are not designed for top job titles, but more and more people, myself included, are realising that is not the case.

Long-term ambitions

From paralegal and business admin to software development, our ambition is to help every young person who joins Credit Style lay the foundations for a successful future career. The reason we do this is partially to give back to the local community, but also for selfish reasons, as it provides us with access to hungry, dedicated and skilled talent that are ready to be moulded and shaped into expert debt professionals. Some current members of staff completed their apprenticeships as long as six years ago, but are still with our business and have achieved internal promotions and continued career success.

Our ambition is not restricted to only providing apprenticeships either. For example, we recently launched a new internship programme in collaboration with Sheffield Hallam University, providing students with work placements throughout the summer of 2021. This new scheme is part of our ongoing business-wide commitment to working with regional service providers and driving opportunities for local talent to learn and succeed.  We will be taking on interns in both our legal department and client services department. This latest partnership is also a brilliant opportunity for our employees to take part in reverse learning, consolidating their knowledge and embracing the fresh ideas and thoughts of the next generation of young professionals.

But what’s the appeal to young people?

The stable environment, various types of roles and potential for career success in debt collection remains an attractive proposition to students entering the workforce and lots of debt recovery companies can point to their performance during the coronavirus pandemic as evidence of job security and earning potential vs other career routes.

Regarding Credit Style specifically, we have a great track record of helping young people grow and develop and can point to clear examples of how we have treated apprentices with the same care and attention as we do any member of staff. We have applied this logic to our internship offering too - University placements last up to 8 weeks and are quite often unpaid, but Sheffield Hallam University offers 100 hours of funding for students and we have chosen to offer full funding with pay on top of this, so every student who joins us earns while they learn the entire time. This sets the tone for how we look after our people and what those who stay with us after they graduate and come to expect.

Sharing our knowledge and experience with new talent is something we are always very keen to do and we hope to inspire more young people to explore their career options in future. Learning from our experienced staff will provide great insight for students which could help them succeed within our industry once they complete their studies. If you are interested in finding out more, contact us here.

Join us next time when we discuss myths around non-repayment and why companies going bust does not necessarily mean a debt gets wiped.