Apprenticeship

Tuesday, 2 August 2016

Apprenticeship at The Victorian Barn

First let me introduce myself. My name is Isabelle and I was born on the 31st of December 1997 (a pain for my mother I can only imagine!) and I have recently joined as The Victorian Barns’ new customer service apprentice. I have lived in the nearby town, Blandford Forum, all of my life with my mother who is a nurse, father who is a fireman and my younger sister. I always thought my parents would like me to become a police officer so that we could have the full house of emergency services! Unfortunately for them, I fell in love with the hospitality industry at the ripe old age of 15 and in this blog, I’m going to take you on that wonderful journey of how this romance begun.

Like any other child I had wonderful and magical dreams about my future career. From the age of 8 I was heavily influenced by the T.V. show “The Bill” and wanted to become a police officer but once the show was cut I then realised perhaps the army life was for me. After looking at countless opportunities and positions I readily decided that I was not the next Private Benjamin. Throughout this ordeal of trying to figure the correct career I completed my GCSE’s at the Blandford School and secured a job at a local hotel and had since moved to study the A-Levels of English Literature and Language, ICT, Psychology and History.

Now, just like every other 17/18 year old studying A-Levels you are then bombarded with the same question “are you going to University and what are you study?” or “have you passed your driving test yet?” and just like every other 17/18 year old, I hated both of those questions being asked 24/7 so I decided to try and answer the latter; only to fail my test and become even more disheartened. So, I moved on to the second question.

Earn and Learn

I believe that we are living in a society where they make you believe you have to go to University, which is justified by the idea that there is a course for everything nowadays; Viking Studies at UCL, Surf Science and Technology at Cornwall, Ethical Hacking at Dundee… I started to begin my UCAS application. It was not however to study Vikings but to study Psychology, drumroll for possible career number three. With supportive parents and friends, they began to question my thoughts of why I wanted to study Psychology and I had no answer until my Dad asked what did I love doing? That only had one answer which was Hospitality.
After changing my UCAS form entirely I decided I wanted to go and study Hospitality Management at either Brighton or Bournemouth of which I received an Unconditional Offer from Bournemouth and a Reduced Offer from Brighton.

Prior to this I had been talking to my parents about the debt I would be in after the course and whether I’d be happy to live with that debt and after a lot of conversations, stress and looking at other possibilities; I didn’t want the debt. This is where I opted to try and work my way up at the Hotel I used to work for. This was until I heard about the apprenticeship that was being advertised at The Victorian Barn.

During one of my lessons my Sixth Form Administrator (who I cannot thank enough for thinking of me when she received the e-mail) came and collected me and rushed me into her office to see what I thought of the opportunity. I immediately took a photo of the e-mail and sent it to my family and boyfriend for their opinions and I received an over whelming amount of support from them also (again, I cannot thank you all enough).

After returning home, I sat down and tried to type the best e-mail possible hoping it wasn’t already too late and after pressing send I sat and waited. Thankfully, Penny & Claire wrote a quick response and offered for me to come and have a look at The Barn and to have a chat with them. The day arrived and after still not passing my driving test I relied on the taxi service of Dad who also joined me on the viewing of the Barn and a lovely conversation with Penny and just like all guests that come to stay - I was amazed by the outstanding views and facilities that the Barn had to offer.

From that moment onwards I offered my services and was able to help most weekends with the general running of the Barn and the Cottages alongside Penny, Claire and Charlotte or I’d be working weddings with our lovely caterers Jasmine and Mark. Whilst helping out at The Barn I completed my A-Levels, (finally!) passed my driving test, found the college I wanted to take out my apprenticeship with (Kingston Maurward) and had my first cruise with my boyfriend!

On the 01/08/2016 I officially became the new apprentice of The Victorian Barn and I couldn’t be happier! (apart from the drive over Bulbarrow Hill… let’s not talk about the drive!) So watch this space! There will be a lot more Blogs to come from me.