For National Apprenticeship Week 2024, we held a ‘skills swap’ session with an apprentice in Kaplan’s marketing team, Iqra Javid, and Kaplan UK CEO, Kathy Walton.
During the session, we asked the two of them to provide the top three skills that they have developed throughout their career. It was interesting to see such similarities in skills between them, and how Iqra’s apprenticeship has helped her develop skills that she can utilise for life.
Here are their top three skills…
Kathy Walton, CEO
Kathy is the CEO of Kaplan UK with years of experience in the finance and education industry, and the overall working world. Before Kaplan, Kathy explains how her previous job role was comparable to a Level 7 apprenticeship due to the training that was provided.
However, listening to Iqra’s skills and experience supported Kathy’s views that apprenticeships have significantly progressed, and they create well-rounded professionals who are set up with skills for life.
1. Confidence when communicating
Kathy highlights the importance of communication skills in her job role, particularly verbal communication in situations such as conducting a presentation or speaking to a group of people.
Kathy’s tip on how to be a good communicator is that you communicate better when you are confident about what you are saying. If someone asks you a question, and you know what you’re talking about, then it is going to be an authentic discussion.
“If you think your communication is poor, prepare more and know your subject.”
2. Problem-solving
As a CEO, Kathy emphasises the importance of problem-solving abilities; problems do exist, they are part of life so you need the skills to notice if something needs to be addressed.
Once identified, her tip is to not rush to a solution - good problem-solving skills require you to assess a situation and the range of different logical scenarios as rushing into a solution may eliminate other possibilities.
3. Prioritisation
Kathy highlights the importance of prioritising your tasks in any job role:
“There’s too much to do in such little time, which is the definition of life. So, prioritisation is super important, as you have to accept that not everything will get done today.
Not being able to see the wood for the trees because of your workload can trigger stress and anxiety, so the ability to prioritise and learn how to say no is important.”
Iqra Javid, Apprentice
Iqra works within the marketing department at Kaplan UK and is a 19-year-old apprentice. Her job role requires her to manage events and projects while liaising with stakeholders often.
She’s noticed a significant development in her skills and how they translate to her daily job responsibilities. But it was interesting to see how they related to skills that Kathy values - despite the two working at different levels of seniority within the business.
1. Adaptable communication
Whether it’s internally within her team, or with stakeholders, Iqra notes the importance of understanding how to communicate effectively. She advises that setting agendas before a meeting can help encourage positive communication as all parties know what they’re going to be discussing.
Iqra also states that she does need to be adaptable depending on who she is working with, and the ways that they work - which includes her methods of communication (eg. email, calls, or face-to-face).
2. Organisation and time management
In Iqra’s role, it is important to meet deadlines due to the events or projects that she is working on. This means that throughout her apprenticeship, she has had to develop her understanding of how to manage her time effectively, particularly when she has a busy schedule.
With specific events, there may be a lot of requirements or planning that are necessary. Therefore, the ability to prioritise tasks is key so that the level of output is consistent and doesn’t dip when her workload is busy.
3. Taking ownership
Another key skill that Iqra values in her job role is the ability to take ownership and be responsible for her actions or workload. She advises that it’s important to take charge of her work when managing projects and be open to things not always going to plan.
Skills such as taking ownership have also allowed her to develop her leadership skills - particularly when managing and planning events.
The importance of developing your skills
During their discussion, Kathy and Iqra analysed their top three skills while comparing them to how much apprenticeship programmes have developed over the years.
Kathy can remember the times when apprenticeships would really only focus on hard skills, rather than transferable ones:
“The focus was on developing the skills that would get you to the specific job role that you applied to be in.
Whereas, today, there is more of an emphasis on ‘how’ to do something, rather than ‘what’ you do. Apprenticeships now result in much better-rounded people with skills that won’t expire.”
“You are at the most technically qualified the day you finish your apprenticeship. After that, you’ll need to keep supplementing the technical knowledge to stay up to date.”
Feeling inspired?
Whether you’re an employer looking to reach your business goals, or a professional wanting to upskill - at Kaplan, we can help you with our apprenticeship programmes.
Employers - have a browse through our apprenticeship programmes, which include our successful data and technology apprenticeships that can upskill your workforce, transform your business, and help you stay up to date with emerging trends. Get in touch with the team to find out more.
If you are a professional looking for opportunities that can be given with an apprenticeship, browse our current vacancies or read more about how you can speak to your current employer about setting you up on an apprenticeship.
If you’d like to find out more about life as a CEO and the importance of apprenticeships,
watch our interview with Kathy Walton on our new YouTube web series, Career Goals.