Simon Binley, Project Manager and one of the leaders of the Apprenticeship Scheme, comments “The goal of the IT Apprentice Programme is to ‘grow our own’. We want tto have a simple way of developing a talent pipeline, opening our team up to young people in the hope that it will make working for us attractive to bright young minds and their networks. A further goal of the Apprentice Programme is that it will provide the apprentice with a degree equivalent qualification while not incurring the costs associate with more traditional methods of acquiring a degree. “
The 18 month IT Apprenticeship Programme will be an exciting opportunity for Dane and Tom to develop a broad understanding of IT and how it works at the Sanger Institute. Both apprentices will be on a rotation programme covering Service Delivery, Infrastructure, Web Development and High Performance Computing. The rotation will enable Dane and Tom to work with various people across the Institute and wider campus, building strong networking relationships and gaining a rich understanding and fulfilling experience of how the IT Department and the Genome Campus works. The new recruits will also be able to take advantage of the campus lifestyle and community feel including the on-site gym and variety of fitness and well-being classes, sports & social clubs, spacious restaurant, two cafes, free bus transport along with a long list of other benefits.
Cambridge Regional College (CRC) is the institute's learning provider and will be delivering the Level 3 Apprenticeship for IT Professionals. The Sanger Institute will be working closely with CRC to help Dane and Tom with their development and to help maximise their learning and development. The IT Apprenticeship Scheme is new to Wellcome Trust and it hopes to continue to partner with CRC in the future to establish a strong platform of apprenticeship schemes across different departments at the Institute.
Dane enjoys PC gaming which led him to build his own custom gaming machine. He is very into sports and spending time with friends and family. He saw the IT Apprenticeship as a gateway to improve his skills, increase his knowledge in IT and as a springboard to reach his future potential.
Tom is a keen cricketer and enjoys socialising with friends. He has a strong passion for IT and his interest in IT and technology developed from young age. He saw the IT Apprenticeship as a chance to make a career change and an opening to learn about networking, data management and processing.
This is an exciting time both for the Institute and its two new Apprentices - Welcome on board!
Image (l-r): Andy Barron Senior Systems Administrator, Linda Klose Service Delivery Manager, Tom Ashcroft IT Apprentice, Rob Squares System Administrator, Rachael Dent Learning & Development Administrator, Chris Byatt Junior Systems Administrator, Paul Woobey Director of ICT, John Constable Principal Systems Administrator, Justyna Piechowska Recruitment Advisor, Dane Ebanks IT Apprentice, Simon Binley Project Manager and Simon Fraser Principal Systems Administrator.
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