When Fatima finished her A‑levels in English literature, history and sociology, she found herself facing the decision many young people do at this stage in their educational journey – what comes next? She applied to study politics mainly because “everyone else was just applying” but it was actually when her mum encouraged her to look into apprenticeships that a new option opened up.
Discovering what apprenticeships really offer
At school and sixth form, apprenticeships were hardly talked about: “They always push for everyone to go to university… there was always open days and events about universities and nothing about apprenticeships really.”
When Fatima started researching, she was surprised by the range of roles: on the UCAS site she saw “all sorts of project management ones, IT ones, tech ones and all kinds of accounting, finance… even law apprenticeships.” That experience changed how she saw higher education choices.
With all these options, she asked herself, “why get the debt and not be guaranteed a job afterwards when you can skip all of that and study and learn at the same time and get all the experience?”
Learning to balance study, work and responsibility
Before her apprenticeship, Fatima’s experience was mainly in retail, which helped her learn interpersonal and communication skills, but she quickly realised an apprenticeship would stretch her in new directions.
That balance has not always been easy but the key, for her, has been honest communication: “I feel like it’s important to communicate to your manager and your team, I’m stepping away from work to do this study” and to emphasise the importance of all areas of the apprenticeship, including protected off-the-job hours.
Turning coursework into real‑world impact
One of the most rewarding aspects for Fatima has been seeing her learning appear in real cases at work. She describes moments where she’d open the team inbox and spot something familiar. These “aha” moments showed her the value of learning on the job: “It was quite cool to come across that and realise I can apply my learning directly.” Rather than being something separate, her training became a toolkit she could use straight away to help colleagues and contribute to live requirements and requests.
A standout example is the “right to erasure” process she helped design. Tasked with putting a procedure together, Fatima revisited the legal and technical content she had studied: “I had to review the laws again, look at my coursework… to be able to put something together.”
That procedure is now used whenever a relevant request comes in. Knowing a core process in the council was shaped by her apprenticeship project is something she can proudly point to and say, “I did that. That’s me.”
Growing from apprentice to trusted colleague
Despite joining straight from sixth form, the jump into a professional team felt manageable thanks to the supportive environment. Fatima explains that “the dynamic shift wasn’t crazy” because she always felt able to ask for help: “Whenever I need help with something, I’ll just email [colleagues]… It’s easy to ask.”
Fatima’s supervisor, Jermaine, shared how Fatima quickly moved from learner to independent contributor. By the time he arrived at the team and took on her apprenticeship supervision, “a lot of what she’d learned had already been put into practice,” and he could see “she was more than capable in terms of what she was able to do and on her own initiative.”
A fresh face in a specialist area
Sharon, the council’s Director of Governance and Civic Services, is a strong advocate for apprenticeships and sees Fatima’s journey as especially powerful in a traditionally niche field. Information governance, she explained, was often seen as “a lawyer’s role done by very old heads on shoulders,” with people pushed into it without structured training.
“An apprenticeship offers almost the opposite of that, offering the most up‑to‑date, modern and complete training… And I just think it’s worth so much.”
A team that wants to “keep” its apprentice
The information governance team is known internally for being close and supportive, and Fatima has become an important part of that.
Keeping Fatima became a running theme: Sharon recalls it how it became a standard agenda item in team meetings, with colleagues repeatedly asked, “Can you make sure that we’re actually keeping Fatima?” For Sharon, this feels different from other situations where the focus is on ““where’s the next one?”; with Fatima, it’s very much a case of “we’ve got her and we’re not letting her go. We’re really proud to have you on board.”
Finding a career fit: advice for others
When she started applying, Fatima intended to become a project manager. Now, she sees her future firmly in her current field: “I definitely want to stay in information governance and data protection; it really suits my personality and it the way I work. I enjoy doing this a lot.”
Her main advice for anyone considering an apprenticeship is simple and honest: “Just apply for everything you see. Before I started, I didn’t know anything about data protection or information governance and had no clue what an IG officer was, but once I began it really interested me.”
Fatima’s story shows that you do not need to have everything planned out at 18. Persistence, openness to new areas and the right support can lead to a career you might not even know exists yet – with a salary, no university debt and real impact from day one.