Balloon offers three new degree apprenticeships.
This week is National Apprenticeship Week so it’s a perfect opportunity for us to announce our new degree apprenticeship scheme, beginning in September 2023.
Marketing Manager Sitara Duggal has initiated the new scheme for the company as part of her participation in this year’s Balloon Challenge. Staff on this personal development challenge spend a year working on a project that will improve an aspect of the business. For her project, Sitara felt strongly that creating an apprenticeship scheme would help deliver a positive benefit for the company that would complement our already strong graduate recruitment and development scheme.
Sitara says, “By investing in local young people just as they start their university education, we are not only giving back to our local community, but also helping to bring in and develop the future talent within the business.”
Three supply chain software degree apprenticeship positions.
Balloon is funding three new supply chain software degree apprenticeships through the nearby University of West London, the UK’s number one establishment in terms of student satisfaction, student voice and academic support in the National Student Survey 2022.
Sitara explains, “The degree apprenticeships will help address the skills shortage in the STEM sector as well as give back to our local community, an approach which has always been central for Balloon.”
We’ve worked closely with four local schools, allowing students from Featherstone High School, Greenford High School, Langley Academy and Dormers Wells to apply.
The three-year degree – Digital and Technology Solutions: Business Analyst – will result in the students gaining a BSc (Hons) as well as three years of paid work experience, at a competitive salary. It is also fully-funded, meaning that the students do not pay any tuition fees, saving them up to £27,750 over the three years.
Through the degree apprenticeships, the successful candidates have an excellent opportunity to begin a career in supply chain technology consulting, working with the latest software and automation, including robots and business intelligence.
Balloon will provide the apprentices with work shadowing and mentoring, plus both on-the-job and more formal classroom training, helping them to develop their knowledge and skills. Rotating across the project management, project delivery and support departments, the apprentices will learn valuable skills four days a week, while studying at university for the remaining day.
Investing in Balloon staff.
This new undertaking fits well with one of Balloon’s core purposes, which is to invest in our employees, as evidenced by our achievement of an Investors in People silver accreditation.
We actively promote the development of new skills and competencies, through staff training and improvement initiatives like the Balloon Challenge. And we are resolute in our support of the mental and physical wellbeing of our staff, which we encourage through a number of programmes.
Investing in the local youth community.
The degree apprenticeships offer an excellent introduction to the world of work for three successful local candidates.
In the same way that our charity work is dedicated towards local endeavours, we are keen to support local students. We aim to be an excellent local employer and can do this by giving back to our local community and investing in its young people.
By providing our new apprentices with a job and a university education that are both in their local area, they will save money as they won’t need to relocate to another city.
Helping to fill skills shortages in the STEM sector.
It is difficult to recruit for STEM sector (science, technology, engineering and maths) jobs. As many as 43% of roles are hard to fill due to a lack of candidates with the necessary skills and experience.
In offering these apprenticeships, we are doing our bit to help bridge that gap. At the end of their three years, our candidates will have developed strong technical skills – across coding and development as well as general IT knowledge. And three years’ work experience on top of their degrees, our graduates will be well set up for their careers.
And we hope too that they will get so much out of their time with us that they will stay on and continue to help the company deliver successful end-to-end supply chain software projects for our customers.
Skills and knowledge for the future.
The Balloon degree apprenticeships will offer a fantastic introduction to the world of work for three youngsters from the Brentford area.
Sitara concludes, “We’re excited to introduce this new programme and to soon meet with the prospective candidates. With a funded university degree, salaried local employment and on-the-job learning, we’re proud of the support Balloon will give them as they embark on their technology careers.”