The Softcat News Team
Every year, Softcat pick a key concept to focus on and this year it’s ‘opportunity’. Whether we’re offering opportunities for new people coming into the business, or creating opportunity to existing employees, this concept is very important to us.
Whilst we employ a lot of graduates who embark on a two-week induction when they join, we don’t want to limit people’s opportunities based purely on their previous academic achievement. This is why we are very proud of our apprenticeship programme, which offers young people a structured programme of on the job learning, with the opportunity for a long-term career with us after that.
The Softcat sales apprenticeship scheme has been recognised as outstanding by many awarding bodies, including the CRN Sales & Marketing Awards, and the National Apprenticeship Awards. It gives a great opportunity to young, ambitious individuals who want to dive straight into the working world. During their first year, apprentices will balance sales responsibilities whilst completing their qualification.
To help them develop and succeed in their apprentice year, each apprentice is assigned a manager, many of whom started out their Softcat career as an apprentice. As well as the programme being an opportunity for young people to come into the working world, it’s also a great opportunity for existing Softcat employees to take on management responsibilities relatively early in their careers.
The apprentice manager role is a lot to take on; employees are expected to juggle these responsibilities alongside their sales role. However, it’s enormously awarding, as Joe Coffey, Apprentice Manager and Colleges Account Manager, explains, “I was really keen to get involved with managing apprentices because I’d done it myself. I know it can be daunting to come into the working world when you’re only 18 years old, so I wanted to help apprentices progress in the same way I’d been helped.”
Tom O’Shea, Corporate Account Manager, also commented, “I love seeing the development of the apprentices that you manage. They come in at 18 without any substantial business experience, and you can get the chance to really teach them to work to their full potential. It’s also a great opportunity for employees at Softcat to become a manager at such a young age.”
Learn about our apprenticeships
For more information about Softcat’s apprenticeship scheme, visit our careers page here or get in touch using the button below.