We recently caught up with Javan Stead, who is currently enrolled onto the Level 3 Information Communications Technician apprenticeship after working in several industries while trying to decide where he wanted his career to take him.
He spoke all about the benefits of this apprenticeship, and how it’s helping him progress his career.
Can you tell us about your career so far?
Since leaving school, I’ve had all sorts of jobs because I’ve never been sure of what I wanted to do until now, later in my 20’s. I studied a BTEC Level 3 extended diploma in Electronic Engineering but I didn’t enjoy it at the time. I moved on to completing a foundation course in art and design, but again I didn’t want to go to university.
After that, I basically just went into work because I wanted to take every opportunity that was given to me. I started working in the automotive industry where I prepared cars for sale. My employer recognised that I was more interested in the parts technical side of the industry, so I was enrolled onto a Parts Level 2 apprenticeship, and then a Level 3 Customer Service apprenticeship. After completing them, I spoke to people in the industry and realised that there wasn’t much further that I could climb up the ladder.
It felt as though I wasted my time, but now I know that I gained skills that transfer over to my current role. But after I was told that there were little opportunities for progression, I started looking for IT jobs where I found my current role. I wasn’t initially looking for an apprenticeship because I had done two already, but it’s just how it fell.
What does the role of a service desk analyst entail?
It’s similar to a first-line help desk, so when IT problems come into our service desk, it’ll come to me. If it’s something simple like a password reset or an authenticator issue, I’ll work on it, and then if it’s more complex I’ll then escalate it towards the second line, third line, or manager. So as a service desk analyst, I’m pretty much the first protocol in the IT hierarchy.
Did you always know that you were interested in IT?
I didn’t think I’d be able to get into it without doing a three-year university course or something like that. But I’ve always enjoyed IT, and working in IT is a lot different to how I thought it would be. It’s like a completely different world - everything is brand new to me. You can say that you like working with computers, but until you actually work in IT, you don’t really know if that’s what you want to do.
Another thing with my old job was that there wasn’t much to offer in the way of learning and progression. The job wasn’t different day-to-day. Whereas, with IT, everything’s different. Every single day is different. There are some common issues obviously that come up often but there’s still always more learning to do. I come out of every week with a new skill or knowledge that I can apply to the job the week after.
How will this apprenticeship help you progress with your career?
I can definitely see how it’s going to help me in the future. Obviously, as I’ve learnt, you can get into IT and just start from the bottom and work your way up without an apprenticeship - but that added learning makes it a bit more of a fast-track towards where I want to be.
I don’t want to be a service desk analyst forever, but that’s where I’ve started. And usually people will spend two to four years doing what I’m doing. Whereas, I can do this apprenticeship and show my employer that I’ve got the skills to progress quicker than I would have if I didn’t do it.
Why did you prefer an apprenticeship over university?
I think with university, a lot of people don’t tell you that you could come out after three years with no experience so you can struggle to get a job. Whereas, with the apprenticeship, every single day I’m gaining work experience.
And I’m getting the qualification. So I would say it’s definitely the way to go if you can get an apprenticeship. Everything is lumped in together, so you have your course and qualification, and then you come out of it with years of experience which will help towards progressing with your career in the future.
Did you have any preconceptions of apprenticeships?
So obviously because I’ve done an apprenticeship before, I did have some expectations. I already had an idea of what it’ll be like. The main difference is that I had the job before I started the apprenticeship last time, whereas with this one I had to make more of a sacrifice as I had started the role on the apprenticeship - but I didn’t mind doing that.
The only preconception I had of apprenticeships prior to doing this one was the age that I am. Usually you’d think of a 17 year old, fresh out of education,but I’m ten years senior to that.
You don’t know how you’re going to be treated - I thought I would potentially be treated like a child because I’m an apprentice, but it’s definitely not like that. I’m pretty sure that most people on my course are my age anyway. But within the business, they treat me like any other team member.
Have you encountered any challenges?
The only challenge that I would say is because I’m working on the IT helpdesk, I can’t have problems waiting. Because I’m doing my studies as well, sometimes it can be difficult to find time to concentrate on the apprenticeship because of the nature of the work.
Obviously I do find time, and I’ve gotten better with more experience on the helpdesk so I’ve managed to find a way to balance that out. But during the start, it was difficult to balance assignments, coursework and my job.
Adding to this, I’ve been given ample resources and time to complete my 20% off the job learning. Between me and my manager, we came to an agreement that I work from home on Mondays and Fridays, where I complete college work in the mornings and work on the service desk in the afternoons. Being able to complete this work at home has really helped me concentrate solely on completing assignments without the distraction of unforeseen distractions in the office (mainly IT hardware issues).
How has the support been from Kaplan?
Every time I’ve had a one to one meeting, I’ve always found them really informative and I do feel like that they actually care about you and your progress - they really want you to do well.
When I had my first training session with the tutor, I had to leave early. I told my tutor and didn’t think much of it, but he put together all of the content that I’d missed on the second half of the day, and set up a meeting with me the following week when I came back so that he could go through it with me. He went out of his way to make sure that I was learning everything I needed to know.
That’s above and beyond - especially when my last apprenticeship didn’t really bother whether you attended or not. So it’s a big difference.
What advice would you give to someone looking to go into the technology industry?
I would definitely recommend it. You’ve got to make sacrifices, usually depending on the company. But if you can make these sacrifices, then go for an apprenticeship. There’s so much that goes into it and you can keep going higher and higher in your career.
There’s a lot of money to be made and a lot of learning to do - so if you like learning and you like money, then an apprenticeship might be for you.
Ready to change your career?
If you’re feeling inspired by Javan’s career journey, have a browse through our current apprenticeship vacancies, or read more about how you can talk to your current employer about enrolling you onto an apprenticeship.
Find out more about Javan and his workplace.
For all information regarding our Data and Technology apprenticeships, you can also download our brochure where you can find all information in one place such as funding, hiring, and contacting the team.