For National Apprenticeship Week, Leeds-based Legal Apprentice Eve Gregory shares her career journey and discusses the importance of researching all higher education options.
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00:00 I think the highlights for me were definitely the level of responsibility given. I kind
00:07 of went into the apprenticeship thinking that it was going to be admin based, I was going
00:11 to be making lots of teas and coffees and it wasn't that whatsoever. I literally was
00:16 trusted to look after my own clients, manage my own caseload, probably within the first
00:21 year and a half, so I think at that point I was only 20. So it's a lot of responsibility
00:26 and trust and I don't think I was expecting that when I first started.
00:30 After leaving school with three GCSEs, Eve Gregory began a travel and tourism course
00:35 at college where she re-sat her GCSEs and went on to secure a place at university. But
00:41 the course and learning style were not for her, and unsure what to do next, a chance
00:45 encounter altered her career path.
00:48 I kind of went back home, started working back at my local pub with the hope to go travelling,
00:54 but during that time of saving I then got called to do jury service at Bradford Crown
00:58 Court. Went and did jury service and absolutely loved it. I literally fell in love with it
01:05 and then got talking to one of the clerks and she kind of told me about the apprenticeship
01:09 scheme and that her niece had applied and I'd never heard of it at this point so I went
01:14 on the train and kind of researched all the apprenticeships that I could do and found
01:18 the Gately Legal one which thankfully I secured an interview for and got the role for, so
01:23 not looked back since.
01:25 As a fifth year legal apprentice with apprenticeship provider BPP, Eve is keen to share her journey
01:31 with Gately Legal in Leeds City Centre this National Apprenticeship Week.
01:35 At BPP students will have one day dedicated to university, so this might be hours of preparation
01:44 ready for your lecture which is normally two hours, depending on what term you could have
01:48 two lectures in one day, so it's a lot of preparation but BPP do really well at providing
01:54 the materials for you to succeed in those lectures. Some people do in comparing it to
01:59 university think it lacks the social aspect of what you get at university and I think
02:04 speaking from my experience of going to university for the year and then starting an apprenticeship,
02:09 I think I have more social opportunities and there's more social side during the apprenticeship.
02:15 Having been down the college, uni and apprenticeship route, Eve is looking forward to a future
02:20 in law and is aiming to inspire the next generation of apprentices.
02:25 I think it's just kind of being open to the alternative routes, I think even now university
02:30 is still kind of what you'd think to do for higher education or what is considered the
02:34 next step and I think it's just being open to all the different paths. By the time I'm
02:39 qualified it'll have been seven years, so it's nice to be able to say that next year
02:43 I'll be done and a qualified solicitor through the apprenticeship programme. So for now it's
02:48 just getting to that point, I'm looking forward to starting my career with Gateliers and kind
02:53 of staying, having kind of something to do with the apprenticeship scheme, whether that
02:57 be mentoring, managing, just having some kind of say in how the apprenticeship pans out