AV industry needs parents to promote apprenticeships as viable career path says Blaydon MD

Paul Milligan, 09 October 2009

Paul Dougherty, managing director of Blaydon Communications has said parents attitude to apprenticeships need to change in order to put young people on a planned, clear career path and help the AV industry enhance its skills base over the coming decade.

Twenty years Dougherty along with MD of sister company UK Time Solutions Chris Routledge, started out as an apprentice, following in the 70 year tradition of the firm supporting apprenticeships.

Dougherty adds, 'Apprenticeship provides a solid, technical career base and as Chris and I have demonstrated, can lead to senior management and the boardroom. One of the bars to young people taking up apprenticeship can be the attitude or parents who see a university education as the best career option for their children. In many cases this is true, however you only have to look at the number of graduates working in shops or call centers for little more than minimum wage to see that it is not true in all cases.'

Blaydon Communications has just taken on apprentice Michael Thompson and planned a career path over the coming ten years. With the support of professional institutes, Michael will build NVQ and other qualification modules while learning practical skills on the job. Should Michael decide to take a degree course in his mid twenties, he will have the full support of Blaydon Communications management.

'While students may leave university in their early twenties with around £20,000 of student loan debt, Michael will be earning good money by that time and driving his own car, maybe saving for a mortgage with no substantial debt. If Michael wants to take a degree course as a mature student he will have the practical skills in place to underpin his theoretical learning,' adds Dougherty.

'If more parents were to see the benefits and long term prospects of an apprenticeship it would no longer be seen as a second best choice, rather as a planned and lucrative career path.'