Carly Pollard, Apprentice Intake Executive at the 3aaa Birmingham Academy:
Connor O’Driscoll is one of our newly employed Apprentices at the 3aaa Birmingham Academy. However, his story is not your average applicant to Apprentice journey!
Through a partnership I set up at a Sandwell Connexions careers fair in West Bromwich Town Hall at the start of this year, I received a referral from Seetec a few months ago – Connor O’Driscoll. At first it seemed that I would not be able to progress his application as he had already completed some units of our qualification at college. However, his strong enthusiasm and passion for IT was apparent during his telephone interview and so I invited him in for a face-to-face interview. At this stage, it became clear that he was one of a rare breed – a young software developer! As a company we decided he was too good to lose and agreed to begin matching him to Employers.
Before we could begin this process, however, we required a few documents from Connor, such as ID, proof of his National Insurance number and GCSE certificates. This would prove to be a problem as he had left home and lived by a different surname to that on his birth certificate. Connor refused to let anything prevent him from joining our programme though and spent the next few weeks rebuilding his relationship with his mum, chasing his certificates, reordering his National Insurance number and even re-registering his birth under his preferred surname! His commitment to the programme at this stage was already admirable.
Jo Barrett, our Senior Apprenticeship Recruitment Executive at Birmingham, having waited patiently to send Connor’s CV out to companies, arranged two interviews for him. However, after attending the one at Bluetel Solutions and being offered employment with them, he was quick to accept their offer. Bluetel Solutions is a company that is very particular with their recruitment and only employ those with the highest level of skills and qualities. Their feedback for Connor was very positive stating that they thought he would fit in with the team well and that they liked his “get-up-and-go” attitude!
When asked how he feels about this opportunity, Connor said “I decided to apply for the Apprenticeship so that I am able to become educated in my chosen field, whilst gaining experience at the same time. IT is what I have always wanted to do and it really is overwhelming how I have managed to secure my dream job at the age of 17!”
We are all very proud of what Connor has achieved so far and wish him every success with his IT Apprenticeship and beyond!