There are a million and one different self-professed ‘experts’ on the internet selling you a whole range of ‘perfect solutions. In reality, you have to approach job applications with flexibility – no job is the same. Every single job application is different and will require an individual approach. Take this from a team full of people who have either hired apprentices or who have recently been in the job market themselves.

This library is your one-stop shop for honest advice, all accessible for free. Our job is to help you get employed, not to trick you into buying a product or signing up for a vaguely priced subscription. 

We are here to be a source of high-quality information aimed at school leavers who are just beginning to make their way in the world and decide what they would like to do in terms of employment. We have no other motivation and will never ask you for money to access the information that we provide. 

We are primarily a website focusing on apprenticeships, so it stands to reason that we have a wide range of information on everything to do with them. We have a helpful page called reasons to start an apprenticeship, which offers some of the most common reasons that young people choose to enter into this particular combination of education and training. 

One of the most compelling of these reasons tends to be that it is an opportunity to earn money while you are still learning. It is a combination of the best of education and the world of work, and you gain an academic qualification at the end of it as well, which can help with your career progression further down the road. 

We lay out the eligibility criteria for starting an apprenticeship in our document called “who can start an apprenticeship?” and we take a closer look at what is meant by the term “apprenticeship standards”. 

Each apprenticeship standard relates to a real-world job role, and they are a way of ensuring that every apprentice who has undergone an apprenticeship with the job role of Bricklayer all have the same set of skills when they emerge at the other end of the apprenticeship.  

It is a way of ensuring that employers can have confidence that an apprenticeship has provided a high-quality grounding in their field of expertise and that people who have completed apprenticeships will be valuable members of their team. 

Apprenticeship standards can cover many different educational attainment levels, from Intermediate to Advanced, Higher and even Degree-level, and they can be a great route to success in the career that you choose. 

The different apprenticeship types mentioned above correlate to varying academic requirements and outcomes. The intermediate apprenticeship is the easiest to get into but has a lower academic outcome than the advanced apprenticeship, and so on. 

The Degree apprenticeship is the equivalent of an undergraduate university degree in academic terms and is a great way to reach that level of qualification without having to spend a fortune on tuition fees. There is also the added bonus of having years of experience working in your chosen field and gaining real-world experience while you have been studying. 

Every apprenticeship culminates in an End Point Assessment, which is designed to test the skills and knowledge that has been gained by the apprentice in the course of their time with the company.  

If you are a parent, guardian or teacher, you are both free and, indeed, encouraged to access these resources. Supporting a young person through this process is not easy, but you should appreciate how much less stressful it is for them to have an adult helping them through it. 

This is a difficult time in a young person’s life, but they will get through it far easier knowing that you have their back and are willing to help them with their decisions. For more guidance and support, you should visit the Parent and Teacher Information Hub.

If you are a young person who is looking for help writing a CV and a cover letter, you have likely either never done it before, it will have been a while since the last one, or you haven’t had any success so far. Whichever scenario applies to you, we want to do what we can to simplify the process and give you the best advice on how to tailor your CV and cover letter to both meet the established criteria and present you in the best possible light to potential employers.

We have outlined a generic advised template for each, but we emphasise they are only templates. Your CV and cover letter must meet specific requirements to achieve clarity and be informative, but they must also reflect your own personality and accomplishments as a candidate. 

One of the best things that a cover letter, in particular, can do is to give a potential employer a flavour of who you are as a person. It’s good to remember that hires aren’t always made or jobs offered based solely on abilities. Instead, they are often based on whether they think that you have the right kind of personality and work ethic to fit in at their company. This is why it is essential to tell them about individual things that make you stand out from the crowd. 

We are building this document library with your needs at the forefront of our minds. If you find that something could be improved or have an idea for another template or advice that could be added, use our contact form to let us know. Help us to help you!