Smashing the First Stage of a Degree Apprenticeship Application Process
Let’s imagine you have found some degree apprenticeship programmes that you are interested in, so now you have to apply to them to express your interest to the employers! In this article in my “Journey To Becoming A Degree Apprentice” series, I will be answering these questions you may have:
🤔 What could I expect from the initial stage of a degree apprenticeship application?
🤔 What could I be asked on an application form?
🤔 What tips do you have for questions in an application form that require long answers?
🤔 What etiquette should I adopt when writing an email/cover letter to the company for the first time?
🤔 What tips do you have for when I write my CV?
🤔 What Could I Expect From the Initial Stage of a Degree Apprenticeship Application?
The first stage of an application process can differ between programmes, but you are likely to come across either an application form or an email to express your interest. With these, it is very likely that your CV and possibly your cover letter will go hand-in-hand with it! The email may be instead of a cover letter.
📃 Application Form
🤔 What Could I Be Asked on an Application Form?
An application form for a degree apprenticeship can be quite lengthy but is a great opportunity for the company to find out about you! They will require personal details, including your name, address, email, and phone number, and they will also require information about your education and employment history (it doesn’t matter if you’ve never had a job though). You may also need to provide information on your skills and motivation to do the degree apprenticeship!
🤔 What Tips Do You Have For Questions in an Application Form That Require Long Answers?
Writing about your skills and motivation is your chance to shine because they would help to justify why you stand out as a candidate, and questions relating to these may require long answers, so it would be worth planning how you will structure it so you can identify the key points that help you to stand out, meaning you’re less likely to waffle 🧇! When you write your answers, I recommend writing these out in a word processing document in a program such as Microsoft Word. This is because application forms may not have a spell-checking feature, and you need to make sure that your answers are grammatically correct as this will be the first impression the company will have of you, and you need to make sure it looks professional! Also, it would be worth having a backup of your answer just in case you don’t save your application form — you would not want to lose it!
📧 Email/Cover Letter
🤔 What Etiquette Should I Adopt When Writing an Email/Cover Letter to a Company For the First Time?
For some degree apprenticeship programmes, the initial stage may be to send an email to someone, such as an apprenticeship manager, to express your interest. This could be as a stage in their application process, or you may wish to send an email even if they aren’t advertising at the moment in case they open any vacancies. Either way, make sure that you use the right etiquette when you’re writing an email or cover letter to this person because, yes, it is the first impression they will have of you! If writing an email isn’t part of the application process, you may instead need to write a cover letter which will be attached with your application form. Below is a picture of an email I sent as part of an application process:
- It’s in a formal manner — no signs of slang or emojis here!
- The person is addressed as “Mr”, followed by their surname. Aim to address the person you are writing to with their title and surname for respect. If you don’t know the name of the person you are writing to, you may wish to put “Dear Sir or Madam,”, but do aim to find out. The company’s website might be helpful here.
- The email is concise and straight to the point. The purpose of the email or cover letter is to give an overview of you, no waffling 🧇! No more than a page.
- It is signed off with “Yours Faithfully” and then my full name. “Yours Faithfully” was used here because I hadn’t met the person before.
🤔 What Tips Do You Have For When I Write My CV?
Along with the application form or email, there is a good chance you will need to include your CV. I got some of these tips from the code camp I went to in 2019, so many thanks to Kainos! Let’s see how I applied the tips I learnt to my own CV:
- It’s structured into bullet points, with the key points in bold and the use of headings.
- It only takes up a page — recruiters will be reading through a lot of CVs and there are opportunities to go into more detail about your points later on in the application process! Aim for your CV to take up one or two pages for these reasons.
- Each section is concise and generally relevant to computing and programming, given I was going for a degree apprenticeship in software engineering. I did put some things that weren’t directly related to this, but I got valuable experience from other activities too, namely soft skills!
- Work experience and my education history are written in chronological order — the most recent are the most relevant.
- My education history is at the bottom of the CV — the vast majority of people will have it on there, so why should it be the first thing that is read? Other sections, like your skills, are most relevant to the programme and help you to stand out, hence why they would be more beneficial at the top!
- I have my picture at the top. This is completely optional, but it helps to make it stand out in comparison to if my CV was just text.
I hope by looking at how I structured my CV it can give you an idea of how to write yours!
Tips That Apply to All of These!
⌚ Time
For an application form, email, CV or cover letter, make sure you give yourself plenty of time to write these out because… yes, I will say this again… it will be the first impression the company will have of you! You will need to present yourself in the best light to help you stand out as a candidate! Keep looking out for when companies are opening vacancies, so you have plenty of time before the deadline!
🧐 Get A Second Opinion
To additionally help present yourself in the best light, kindly ask someone else to look over your application form/email/CV/cover letter. I asked my progression specialist at college and someone at a code camp I went to to look over my applications, and I am so glad I did this because they helped to improve my applications massively. They helped me to structure the CV properly because it was originally quite long and essayish, and they identified information that would be irrelevant for the role, including some volunteering I did when I was 8 (ages ago!). They also gave ideas on what I could include to help it stand out too, as well as checking spelling and grammar! I STRONGLY recommend getting a second opinion, I felt much more at ease when I submitted my applications because I was confident about them, so I help that helps you too!
One Final Note…
I hope this article has helped you if you are planning to apply for degree apprenticeships, a lot of these tips could also be applied to any job’s initial application stage. Feel free to leave any questions or thoughts in the comments below. If you are an apprentice or employer, I would really appreciate it if you could leave any advice regarding this topic too!
