Jon Rogers Case Study

Jon Rogers

Data Manager at Smart Training and Recruitment

Jon is now the Data Manager for Smart and has worked with us since May 2010. He started with us on the traineeship programme, doing work experience at Hursts. When that programme ended he was then offered a job in our Data team as Data Administrator, where he completed my Business Admin Level 2 Apprenticeship.

He is now our Data Manager and has worked his way up whilst undertaking numerous Apprenticeships along the way.

Through this, we are aiming to tell a story of Jon’s career journey as an “upskilling Apprentice”. The rationale is to successfully bring to market that anyone can do an Apprenticeship at any age and stage of their career and it’s not just for school leavers, highlighting the need for Training Programmes that will lead to increased knowledge, skills, pay and promotion prospects for the already experienced employee that wants to further progress in their role, be effective in supporting necessary, successful change into an organisation, bring about confidence in own ability to learn and share greater knowledge, best practice, new ideas etc.

1. How long had you been working in the Data Centre as a data administrator before you embarked on the higher Level 5 (please add in name of qual here)

I had been working in the Data Centre for over 10 years before starting my Level 4 Data Analyst Apprenticeship. Having built up a lot of experience in a variety of roles, it felt like the right time to embark on a more technical qualification, enhance my skillset and earn a Nationally recognised certificate to back up my knowledge.

2. What encouraged you to want to upskill in this area?

The decision to upskill made perfect sense to me, and I could see I stood a lot to gain from completing a higher apprenticeship programme at this stage of my career. Even with years of practical experience under my belt, by achieving this qualification I was opening myself up to potential new responsibilities, pay progression and long-term career development. It really was a valuable opportunity to extend my expertise and push myself further professionally, even as an already established employee.

3. What was your learning journey like? Please describe the support you required from your employer as well as the provider

My learning journey was a mix of discovery, challenges and reinforced confidence in my ability to adapt and learn new skills. It definitely helped squash any initial uncertainty when I was introduced to the structure of the course and seeing the overall training plan. Knowing what modules I had coming up next was exciting and motivating throughout. It also helped having a supportive employer providing me with the space and time to complete my learning. I saw it as an investment from them in myself, knowing I would bring these valuable new skills back into my work. My training provider was also very supportive, delivering the training with clear guidance and relevant learning resources that were a good mix of theory and practical tasks.

4. How has gaining the knowledge and skills helped your confidence at work and your standing with colleagues you are supporting?

Gaining this higher level skill set has helped to boost my confidence especially with supporting colleagues with navigating their tasks. I feel way more capable when contributing to meetings, not just with data related topics but also our company’s processes and improvement strategies. I am better equipped to support my employer with data driven decision making and to streamline workloads, which is particularly useful since being promoted to join our senior leadership team.

5. What do you intend to do with knowledge and skills you have gained in terms of supporting your employer moving forward?

Because this was a formal programme I feel like it has also strengthened my professional credibility and proved at least to myself that I could still make meaningful progression and grow within my organisation even after years in the role.