A visit by sixth form students from AKS Lytham proved enlightening for the group, when they toured Ameon HQ in Blackpool and received a presentation on the company’s acclaimed degree apprenticeship programme; courtesy of the programme’s first inductees, Dave Connor and Jason Kwok.
Newly appointed directors, Dave and Jason received positive feedback from the independent school’s students, who appreciated the benefits of studying for an honour’s degree, whilst also working within the business and earning a salary.
Zoe Uphill, AKS Lytham’s head of careers also gave positive feedback following the visit. She commented: “The students found the visit to Ameon highly valuable, gaining practical insights into industry operations and enhancing their understanding of real world applications.”
Managing director, Robin Lawson was pleased with the level of engagement from students. He said: “It was encouraging that a number of students were considering the degree apprenticeship route, rather than study full time at university. Furthermore, it was equally pleasing that AKS, a school with high academic standards, could see the numerous advantages of our degree apprenticeship programme, because it contains the required academic integrity, but unlike full time university study, also helps students develop commercial knowledge and life skills, which the conventional honours degree route simply doesn’t do.
“By the time our degree apprentices graduate, they are far more valuable to our business than those coming straight from university, because of their knowledge of the business and the sector in which we operate and will already have been making a significant contribution during their study years. In addition, they will have been earning a competitive salary throughout and not be saddled by student debt at graduation; therefore, I believe it to be an option that more careers advisers should be putting before their students.”
Pictured are (l to r) AKS students, Aton Salem, Jack Hallmark and James Dobson. Additional members of the visiting team were students, Christian Lowe and Alex Cooke.
