During National Apprenticeship Week 2023, we had the pleasure to talk to Darrell Jones, an ex-serviceman who’s really enjoying his Apprenticeship.
Interesting story!
Darrell was recruited into the military several years ago. He chose a technical career path, did basic army training, and then one year of training for his technical job.
Upon completing that, he joined his first working unit of The Royal Corps of Signals, one of the combat support arms of the British Army.
Royal Signals manage all communications for the army, including IT systems and radios.
Darrell was a member of the Royal Signals for just shy of 8 years, working on the hardware of different communications systems as a Systems Engineering Technician.
The job was intense, and Darrell fully applied himself. Signals units are among the first to spring into action, providing essential communications to all military operations.
“I had to learn everything. Not only the communications hardware we were responsible for, but, for example, I also had to learn on the job how to repair and maintain generators in a hot and dusty environment, with little to no spares. By the end of the tour, I developed quite a good mechanical mindset,” Darrell told us.
The work was mainly maintaining hardware, such as keeping vital communications equipment operational whilst attached to Infantry units, or dismantling and repairing generators to power that equipment.
Upon leaving the Royal Signals, Darrell joined a company that looked after defence communications through British Telecom, and then an American company that makes army communication radios. After all this, it was time for a change.
“I was always dabbling in software, liaising with engineers. I was basically the customer, saying, ‘I want this, is this possible?’” so, when the opportunity arose, Darrell didn’t hesitate.
“When you leave the army, they want to ensure you can settle into civilian life. You get access to a website, CTP (Career Transition Partnership) RightJob. I saw the Computacenter vacancy there, applied for it, and within a week I was offered it. I was a bit anxious because I sent my application right before the deadline, but I’m so glad I did!”
Darrell now works as an apprentice for Computacenter ServiceNow Centre of Excellence,
with customers such as Astra Zeneca, Morrison’s Supermarkets, and the French Industrial Gas company, Air Liquide. ServiceNow is an enterprise workflow software company.
Darrell is on a 14-month Implementation Consultant Apprenticeship (Level 4). His EPA is coming up at the end of this month, and he’s already revising for it!
As part of the technical consultant team, Darrell implements and develops on customers' ServiceNow platforms. These are software platforms that make workflow processes such as HR much more efficient.
The team has grown a lot since he joined; right now, it’s massive. “We have colleagues in India, South Africa, all over Europe, ensuring our customers can receive help in their local time zones and languages.”
At the moment, Darrell is working on two projects.
The best part of this Apprenticeship?
“You can learn theory until you’re blue in the face – theory of databases, queries, etc. – but you won’t know what you’re learning until you put it into practice. On-the-job is the best way to learn!
"Universities do good work placements, but I’m not someone who learns from a book, or theory. I learn from practically doing something. This is why I would always recommend apps.
"The support I got from my line managers, Computacenter, and Firebrand has been absolutely brilliant. Even now, though I’m not under Firebrand’s wing anymore, I still got a message from my Learning Mentor to ensure everything’s OK.
"There’s a bit of an impression that apprenticeships are for younger people, but it doesn’t matter what age you are.
Don’t say, ‘I’m too old’ — just go for it! As long as you’ve got the right attitude and the capability of learning, you might be pleasantly surprised!
"And for younger people, listen, the apprenticeship may not offer a huge wage, but at least you earn something, and you’re learning a lot.
"As I always say, nothing ventured, nothing gained!”
Thank you for talking to us, Darrell, and good luck on your EPA!