In recent years there has been a push to get young people into apprenticeships in various fields. This week, Uist Beò is talking to one of Uist’s young apprentices, Jamie Ford. Jamie, from Benbecula, left school last year and then joined the Cothrom ranks, to learn about life in the world of business administration.

After an interview in January to work with ReSrote, Jamie decided to finish his exams before taking the next step in his professional life. As luck would have it, Cothrom had another opportunity in the summer and he decided to go for it.

‘Before I came here, I didn’t really know much about what happened at Cothrom.

I didn’t really know anything about it or what it was. It’s been a lot better than I expected it to be in the best way possible. I’ve met so many new people and I’ve seen people that I’ve not seen in a long while. It’s, yeah, there’s a very wide group of people that come. 

While talking about his apprenticeship, Jamie mentions that:

‘Every day is different. It’s like, sometimes it’s just a case of, like, making stuff like posters for the nursery or classes that we’ve got or helping out or ReStore. I’m out in the van sometimes if I need to be just doing what I can, and then I’ll help Catherine with a lot of the money stuff because that’s what I want to do and go to University this year. 

Jamie is also working alongside Cothrom’s financial officer, Catherine MacInnes and is getting some accountancy experience while he’s in Ormiclate. Initially, he began working for two days a week in August and would help out in the ReStore shop before he began his apprenticeship fully in November. 

For this apprenticeship, Jamie has eight units that he has to work through. Three of these are mandatory and then he can choose five others to study. The required modules focus on how to manage and improve your own performance in a business, reviewing and maintaining your work in a business environment and finally communication skills in a business environment. 

In his other modules he’s also been working with mail and correspondence, social media as well as marketing and decision making in a business environment.

 

‘So I’m doing all the social media stuff and I’m making all the posters at the moment. And then there’s accounting for income and expenditure, which is obviously going about the finances and I have to solve business problems. Sometimes these problems can be quite vague, but some of the points are really specific. 

During his apprenticeship, Jamie set up the ReStore Facebook page to promote the store and show the world the great bargains that can be had there. Learning on the job is the aim of the game at Cothrom, rather than here being hypothetical tasks, the apprentices can see how their work impacts on the business and the wider world.

Jamie is planning on going to university in September and has had a solid grounding in the business world during his time at Cothrom. To finish, I asked Jamie if he had enjoyed his apprenticeship at Cothrom. He replied: 

‘It’s been amazing.

I’ve learned so much stuff and can’t fault it. I definitely think it’s worth coming here. I know that sounds like I’m just advertising this, but I didn’t know what was going on here. Then I came and it’s like, there’s so much more than you’d expect.’

If you’re interested in doing your modern apprenticeship at Cothrom then do keep an eye on their website for opportunities or contact them on 01878700910.