I had a regular supply of one year students from the local University, who were doing a course that required them to spend the third year of their 4 year course in Industry. We had some excellent people who all aspired to working for the big boys in IT but soon found that the grounding that working in a school gave them proved invaluable to their future careers. I suggest you contact the nearest University to your School and see what they do?

Thanks for the suggestion Neilenormal - we do use gap students and that was one path I was considering. I'm sure that grounding would be invaluable so long as they could handle the 'non-glamour' and graft of doing basic IT support.... Hence I started thinking of apprenticeships. But, yes, with the right person that would be ideal too.

Hi Neilenormal. What kind of wage do they get?

Hi Neilenormal. What kind of wage do they get?

 

We employed them on the NJC scales used by local authorities, and the grade was set by a role matching exercise. They were employed on a term time only basis so the annual salary was pro rata'd down accordingly. Most of them said it was OK, and provided a means of paying the rent and some "beer money" on top!!

Hi Ian,

I'm a Work-based Learning Advisor from City University London and often place students in IT Helpdesk/User Support roles in schools etc, in fact most of our IT students looking for placements will do this kind of work as it provides them with a really good technical grounding - something they will need when they graduate and search for graduate roles. At City, we use SFIAplus to map our students' learning, it might be of use to you have a look at this if it's not something you've come across before? You can see the basic version here SFIA Foundation | SFIA Home | SFIA Foundation and if you are a member of the BCS you can see the full SFIAplus version via the main membership page. It's an industry standard matrix of all the jobs across the IT industry that people can do - at various different levels. Most students will start out at level 2 and work their way up. Helpdesk/user support comes under USUP - Service Desk and Incident Management.

Hope this is useful.

Jess

Many thanks. Have been told no funding this year now so on the back burner but I've found out a lot more about how modern apprenticeships work so maybe next year...

Ian

Jess

Many thanks. Have been told no funding this year now so on the back burner but I've found out a lot more about how modern apprenticeships work so maybe next year...

Ian

 

Hi Ian,

 

That's a shame, but it seems to be a similar picture across the board. Best of luck with your future recruitment. Jess