James Atherton, Development Manager at Chubb Fire and Security is a huge advocate of tech apprenticeships – he’s seen them work in practice.
In his role, he manages a team of software and hardware developers to develop platforms which protect critical national infrastructure facilities throughout the UK. He recently hired a new apprentice, Farhan Munshi, who is undertaking the Software Engineering apprenticeship programme with Corndel. The impact has been almost immediate.
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"From what he learned on the boot camp and the course prospectus, it seemed to cover every aspect we needed, from design concepts to database architecture and application structure."
“Our apprentice, Farhan, went away on the Corndel boot camp and came back a different person. Suddenly, all the technical jargon we were throwing around, he understood. We had planned to start with basic test projects, but it became apparent that we were wasting time. He needed to be challenged with more complex tasks. The difference was significant."
From what he learned on the boot camp and the course prospectus, it seemed to cover every aspect we needed, from design concepts to database architecture and application structure. The need for version control, proper development practices, and DevOps were all addressed. The plan we put in place involved a mix of desktop application service and front-end GUI development, which suited him perfectly. He's taken to it like a duck to water. Every week, he brings in something new he's learned from the course."
Farhan has always harboured a natural inclination towards engineering, whether in software or electronics. In his search for the next step in his career journey, he noticed that Chubb was providing apprenticeship opportunities and made the decision to apply – noting that the apprenticeship would open up his career opportunities in a big way:
“I saw Chubb were advertising software engineering apprenticeships. I didn’t know much about the company at the time, so I did a bit of research and figured out that this isn’t some normal company - this is a huge company, and the career opportunities would be huge if I could get this.”
And get it he did!
Farhan’s currently working on a project focused on timesheets and web development. The ultimate goal of the project streamline processes at Chubb, yielding substantial time and cost savings for the company. He says the apprenticeship programme gave him the stepping stone he needed to work on the timesheets project in an impactful way.
James, his line manager, certainly sees the benefit in software engineering apprenticeships: “I see them being more valuable than someone going to university for four years. It's because of the experience, the real-world realisation that goes into it. I see the apprenticeship scheme definitely being a better route to being successful in your career going forward."
Farhan does too – he explains the support he’s received from his software engineering PDE has been invaluable:
“I imagined apprenticeships to be demanding and stressful, I was under the impression that it was up to me to figure everything out and produce work with little to no guidance and since starting (the apprenticeship) I’ve realised how wrong I was. Tim, my PDE, is exceptional – he’s consistently helpful and thorough.”
“I am really grateful for this opportunity, I’m really grateful to Corndel for delivering such a high-quality apprenticeship”.