A former IT support worker who left school at 16 and struggled to find his vocation has finally managed to kick-start his career in web development after starting an apprenticeship.
Jaimie Warburton, 28, from Caerphilly, has always had an interest in IT and web development, but found it difficult to get his career on track after leaving school.
Working as IT support at a variety of businesses, Jaimie became despondent about his career and craved the opportunity to get his foot in the door of a web design company, however without any formal qualifications in web development or relevant work experience he struggled to secure a job.
He decided to go freelance for a short period of time in order to gain some experience and before long came across the opportunity to do a Level 4 apprenticeship in Front-End Web Development with IT Pie in Penarth.
Twelve months on, thanks to IT Pie, Sgil Cymru and the Welsh Government, Jaimie is on the road to completing his apprenticeship and becoming a fully-qualified web developer with a bright future ahead of him.
Jaimie said: “After freelancing for the best part of a year my girlfriend came across the opportunity to do an apprenticeship in web development with IT Pie. I was eager to apply and was lucky enough to get the job.
“The course has been absolutely brilliant. I have received so much support and guidance from my colleagues who have taught me all the technical terms and language. It’s been great to be able to apply everything I’m learning at college to real-life situations every day.
“I finish the apprenticeship in September and will become a fully-qualified web developer. I feel like my career is finally taking off.
“I’d definitely recommend doing an apprenticeship.
“I didn’t even think they were available in things like web design, I thought you had to go to university to work in web development and coding, but that’s not the case. It’s been a brilliant way of gaining hands-on practical experience as well as all the relevant skills and qualifications.”