Following an official school visit to Ameon HQ in Blackpool by AKS Lytham, keen student James Dobson, approached us for an opportunity to gain some work experience, as he ponders his higher education options following his sixth form studies at one of Lancashire’s most prestigious schools.
James, has already heard of the route to an honour’s degree, were he to join Ameon on the acclaimed degree apprenticeship programme, and he requested the work experience period with us to get an understanding of the work we undertake and the career options available.
Three days spent with us, experiencing some of the basics of Revit modelling and engineering calculations, and also learning about the vital role of estimating, provided food for thought for the would be engineer, who now has to make an important decision about his next step, which is to choose full time university study or to join the degree apprenticeship programme that has proved successful career springboard for so many of Ameon’s management team.
Commenting on James’s experience with Ameon, design director, Dave Connor, himself an honour’s graduate of the degree apprenticeship programme, said: “James is a bright young man and showed genuine interest in the work we do here. And he had the initiative to request the opportunity to spend time with us, so he’s shown a willingness to learn and consider an alternative path to his degree.
“It’s difficult for students at academically high achieving schools to make a choice like this because the peer pressure is to go down the conventional route of higher education. However, I think he’s seen enough of the graduates on our management team here to know that the work knowledge and experience they gain whilst studying on our degree apprenticeship programme, gives them a real advantage over their peers by the time of graduation, because they are already several years ahead in terms of technical ability and industry experience.
“Add to those benefits the fact that our degree apprentices are paid a salary while they study and work in the business, while full time university students are saddled with student loans, and we’d hope that James and other students would see our route to an engineering honour’s degree as the most logical one to take.”
