Staff stories – Roisin

With a workforce of over 1,550 employees and volunteers, Shaftesbury seeks to continually streamline processes and improve efficiency by attracting talent to our business support roles.

IT apprenticeship offers graduate pathway

Roisin had no background in IT when she successfully applied for an apprenticeship and embarked on a year-long placement with Shaftesbury. What appealed to her about the scheme was learning on the job while getting paid to study and advance her career.

Four years on, Roisin is a valued member of our IT support team and is still acquiring new skills which is what keeps her at Shaftesbury.

Completing a degree in graphic design had put Roisin off the idea of pursuing it as a career. The scarcity of graduate jobs after she left university saw her working part-time in a gaming store while looking for the right career opportunity.

The Covid lockdown is when Roisin first realised there might be a career for her in IT. With time on her hands, she built her own computer and discovered she had a talent for it, despite not having IT qualifications or previous experience.

Applying for an apprenticeship with a third-party matched Roisin with an opportunity within the IT team at Shaftesbury. Four days a week was spent working in our London office, with one day set aside for studying and completing coursework.

“I’m a gamer, which means I’m pretty tech savvy, but everything I knew about computers had been self-taught. It’s what made the job interesting, more of a challenge,” she says.

Shaftesbury is a family-orientated employer, supportive of work-life balance, according to Roisin. She appreciates the flexibility of being able to work remotely from home as it allows her to fit in chores and family commitments around work, taking the pressure off evenings and weekends.

IT is still male dominated, so Roisin has enjoyed the opportunity to prove her worth and be rewarded with a permanent position after the apprenticeship came to an end. Her current job involves supporting the Shaftesbury workforce with IT issues and onboarding new employees when they join.

“IT is ever evolving so there is always something new to learn. My manager is a big believer in career progression and encourages us to go on courses, not just for the sake of the business – it’s more about investing in me personally.”