National Apprenticeship Week - Celebrating our Apprentices

We are thrilled to be celebrating and supporting National Apprenticeship Week (NAW) again this year. This week is a fantastic opportunity to highlight the incredible contributions apprentices make to our business and the broader industry. 

In 2023, we celebrated our first cohort of apprentices who are now nearing the end of their programme and are looking forward to their end-point assessments. Since then, our apprenticeship programme has continued to grow and thrive. In September, we welcomed a second early careers cohort, bringing our total number of apprentices to seventeen, across the business. All our apprentices have integrated seamlessly into their teams, showing exceptional dedication and increasing skills in their roles. 

Among our seventeen apprentices, we are delighted to introduce Daniel, a member of our second early careers cohort who joined us in September 2024. Daniel is currently pursuing his Level 3 Data Technician apprenticeship within our Commercial team.

Before joining Valda Energy, Daniel's experience was primarily in the retail industry. He came across our apprenticeship programme whilst exploring opportunities in Bicester, where he is based. He was interested in an office-based, set schedule Monday-to-Friday role, where he could learn valuable and transferable skills to progress his career. 

Since joining Valda, Daniel quickly immersed himself in the role, focusing on analysing commissions and working in the background to ensure that our processes are followed correctly. He is currently learning to use MySQL, a database management, and has been working on automations to boost efficiency for our team and eliminate some manual processes. 

With set ‘learning days’ on Tuesdays, and ensuring he spends 20% of his time learning, Daniel successfully finds the balance between working and completing his portfolio. 

“My workload is very fair and the support I’ve had from the team is great. It feels like I’ve been part of the team much longer than 5 months. My highlight so far is being part of a team and bouncing ideas off each other”. 

Sophia, Daniel’s Line Manager, shared her experience of having an apprentice on the team. “Having Daniel on board has been a positive experience for the department. The team has worked together to make sure he has the guidance he needs, which has also helped foster stronger communication and collaboration within the group.”. 

“I would absolutely recommend employing apprentices. They bring fresh perspectives, enthusiasm, a strong desire to learn and it is rewarding to see them develop and contribute meaningfully to the team. While there’s a commitment in terms of time and resources, the return on investment in the long term has proven to be significant.” 

Though Daniel is thoroughly enjoying his apprenticeship, he reflects on how he wishes he had known more about such programmes earlier in his career. “I wish I had the chance to start an apprenticeship earlier instead of going into a full-time job. I knew they existed, but I didn’t know enough about them and dismissed them as not something for me”. His advice for anyone considering an apprenticeship is to "do their research" to ensure they are making the best decision for themselves. 

Looking ahead, Daniel’s immediate goal is to pass his driving test, which is coming up in a couple of weeks. Following that, he is looking forward to finishing his apprenticeship, which is equivalent to an A Level. With his experience, he plans to progress his career as an analyst and learn more about process automation within the business.  

Daniel's journey is a shining example to the opportunities and growth that our apprenticeship programme offers. It highlights the importance of celebrating National Apprenticeship Week and spreading awareness about apprenticeships’ value and impact. We are proud to support Daniel and look forward to seeing his continued success at Valda. 

If you are interested in exploring the apprenticeship opportunities at Valda, you can read more about our early careers programme and express your interest in becoming a part of our 2025 cohort.