Page 58 - Seaford Sixth Form Experience 2024

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Tom Thornton
Tom won an Electrical Engineering apprenticeship with the Thales Group.
After a very competitive application process, Tom has an apprenticeship with the group
where he will gain an Electrical Engineering degree.
“I heard about the apprenticeship from a friend’s mum, I was talking to her after a
hockey match and she suggested I apply. The first stages were online, and you supplied
your predicted grades and wrote about why you wanted to pursue the apprenticeship.
Stage two was an interactive game, it’s an aptitude test where they worked out what
kind of person you are, what skills you’re good at, that sort of thing. The final stage was
an interview online which had three different stages. There was a group task in small
groups of three and an interview with the person that runs the apprenticeships. We had
a long conversation, it was only supposed to be about half an hour, but we went over an hour. The third stage
was just group exercise. There were two different apprenticeships on offer, one for systems engineering and the
other for electrical engineering.
I was one of seven people there out of the thousands that applied. At that stage I was amazed that I’d actually
managed to get that far. After this stage was over, I got a call within an hour and was offered an apprenticeship –
I was very happy.”
Apprenticeships
There are many different routes students take after our Sixth Form. Increasingly, apprenticeships are popular,
not only because you gain experience working in a company, but also because you are financed through
your degree and often have a job at the end of the apprenticeship. It’s a fantastic way to work in various parts
of a business and work out which area you would like to work in.
“University isn’t the only way or even necessarily the
best way to follow your dreams. The careers and higher
education landscape has changed and accelerated
since COVID, and we need to stay on this wave. It’s
great to see our students gaining these prestigious
apprenticeships and backing themselves.”
Jon Jones, Director - Acting Head of Sixth Form