Apprenticeship with Millwall Community Trust allowed Zak to gain valuable experience

Zak Jaques started his progression through Millwall Community Trust’s Traineeship programme. A traineeship is a 12-week training programme run by many Football Clubs that developed people’s work-based skills and build their confidence so they are ready to start their careers. This saw Zak learn and nurture both soft and hard-skills in order to build his way to full-time employment at the Trust.

Zak  was previously part of the Employment Support Programme at Millwall Community Trust where he received experience as a receptionist in order to gain his Level 2 Customer Service qualification. Having gained knowledge and skills of a real-world working environment, he was given the opportunity to continue his work at the Trust as a volunteer.

With 6 months of voluntarily work under his belt, Zak was approached by his manager about the apprenticeship programme the Trust offered in partnership with Southwark College. He immediately signed onto the course and has not looked back.

He explained: “I did a Business Admin Level 3 Apprenticeship that was in partnership with Southwark college. I started in January 2019, it was an 18-month apprenticeship with 4 days in the workplace and 1 day in which I did offsite learning at the college.

I learnt a range of different aspects of business administration from legislation’s to internal and external organisational structures and their sectors, and much more.”

During his apprenticeship, Zak was able to implement his learning into improving the Trust.

He said: “We had to do a project on something that improves our organisation and the project I chose to do revolved around maintaining a cleaner environment. Our dustbins were constantly overfilling due to the waste produced from different events previously held at the Trust. My project would help create a new system for dustbins to not be overfilled.”

Millwall Community Trust has not only aided local people into avenues of work, but their apprenticeship programme provides young people with valuable experiences.

Zak believes this has been pivotal in his transition to becoming an employee within the trust because “A common issue, particularly with young people trying to get into employment, is the lack of experience. An apprenticeship helps you get a step into the world of work with minimal previous experience, which was a great benefit for me.

“I would recommend an apprenticeship to everyone. It helped me gain experience, skills and secure role here.”

John Scarborough, MCT’s employment and education manager, witnessed Zak’s progression at MCT first-hand.

He said: “Zak’s journey at the Trust is a real credit to the hard work and dedication that he has shown since enrolling initially in our Employment support programme.

During that journey, he has benefitted from many different Millwall mentors along the way – all of whom would testify of Zak’s progress both in his role and as a professional employee.

The ability to complete his employment support programme and being able to access an apprenticeship opportunity is a testament to the support pathways apprenticeships provide. It gives us as an employer, but also participants on our programme and in the wider community a chance to upskill themselves, as well as secure long-term employment and a sense of distinct professional identity.

We really look forward to seeing Zak’s continued journey at the Trust and the positive effect he has on his colleagues and our participants who access our facilities.”

Zak will now look to continue his impact on the Trust as he continues his journey with Millwall.