Hi, my name is Libby and I’m a Customer Service Apprentice at City College Peterborough.
Whilst I was studying at school I thought I knew what I wanted to do for my career and once I had completed school I thought I had it all planned our. At the time I was volunteering with a local riding stable, whilst waiting to move on to the next step in my career.
After school, I went straight into work experience as a receptionist till October and then later moved Doncaster to study Horse Racing.
While living in Doncaster I stayed at a residential college where my plan was to complete the 3-month course and then move further afield to progress in my career.
I then found out I couldn’t progress onto the next step of my horse riding career due to medical reasons and because of this I could no longer carry on with the course. I decided to move back to Peterborough to pursue a different full time career.
I started job searching online throughout November and had one interview for a receptionist position, unfortunately I didn’t get the position but I was keen to find out why I didn’t get the position and see how I could improve. I asked for feedback and they told me that I needed to get more work experience in the role.
So, having been told this I felt that the best option for me was to go onto an apprenticeship programme where I could learn whilst I earn as well gaining more hands on work experience, which would boost my CV and help me apply for jobs in the future.
I found this apprenticeship on the gov.uk website and I applied straight away. After applying I was offered an interview, which was successful, and I was then offered a taster day to see how well I got on in the role. On the taster day I was given an insight of what my job role would cover and at the end of the day I was offered the position. I then stared the apprenticeship a week later.
Libby Cooke, Customer Service Apprentice at City College Peterborough