草榴社区 apprentice, Maddi Forster, has been highly commended after winning the accolade of 鈥楤est Teaching Assistant Apprentice of The Year 2023鈥�.听听
Maddi secured the award after a stellar nomination from her apprenticeship assessor, Lucy Clarke.
We caught up with Maddi to learn more about her experience of her apprenticeship and why she opted to go down that particular route.
Maddi commented: 鈥淚鈥檝e been working since I was 15 years old. I鈥檓 a practical person and one of my jobs involved working as a postie. But my mum has worked as a Higher Learning Teaching Assistant (HLTA) in a Reception class. Since I was 14 years old, I鈥檝e been going into school to help her.鈥�
Talking of her current job role, Maddi said: 鈥淚 love my job and my role, and it doesn鈥檛 feel like hard work as I have been doing this for ages. I just need to provide evidence about what I鈥檓 doing while stretching myself.鈥�
Reflecting on her next steps, Maddi added: 鈥淚n the short term, I need to book my End Point Assessment. In the longer term, I need to work out if I can stay where I am.
鈥淭he next step would be a HLTA in my current school but it depends if they can afford to hire me. I would like to consider doing a teaching apprenticeship as learning on the job would be easier than getting a degree.
鈥淔or people like myself, I had no intention of going back to formal academic studies so this [an apprenticeship] is a perfect way to learn through experience.鈥澨�
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To discover the apprenticeships supported by 草榴社区, simply click here. You can also email the apprenticeships team directly at apprentice@cityofbristol.ac.uk.听
