Reece Bussey

Reece is currently an Apprentice with South Yorkshire Housing Association. His role as an ICT Practitioner Apprentice has allowed him to broaden his horizons and learn a variety of new skills which he utilises on a day to day basis.

“I wanted to do an apprenticeship because I like the application of being able to learn as well as work at the same time – it seemed really practical.”

I like to be hands-on with my work, and I feel like you’re applying your knowledge a lot more. I researched South Yorkshire Housing Association before I applied and heard very good things – you go home, and you feel like you’ve done some good for the day! In my role as an ICT Practitioner Apprentice, I’ll be maintaining the Sharepoint groups, I’ll be giving people information about how to operate the new systems, I’ll basically be the go-to person when anyone has a problem.

Sheffield College has provided me with the structure and stability I have needed through an array of support systems; such as regularly scheduled drop-ins by the college's Digital Apprenticeship learning mentor Stephen Stocks, to help me manage my progress as I complete my apprenticeship. Stephen will methodically assess the work I have done, from completing my smart assessor out of work log to college assessments, then he will methodically deconstruct and give constructive feedback on what I can improve. He’ll also on a casual basis ask me how he feels the course is going and upon learning I had extra time for exams in college. He made the decision to give me an extension on the time I would have to complete the course, as well as giving me guidance on where I could go on campus if I ever felt I needed additional support.

During the COVID crisis, we’ve also had a constant stream of updates and video calls following on from where we left off before lockdown was put into place.

So far, this isn’t really what I thought an Apprenticeship would be like – I’ve done far more learning than I thought I’d do. My favourite thing about my Apprenticeship is what I get to learn. I’ve learnt so much so far and I haven’t done anything like this previously. It’s a whole new world for me, and I’ve dived straight in.