In partnership with Your Future Career, we recently interviewed Emma Leire, one of our apprentice employers. Lead Micro Biologist at Centauri Therapeutics, Emma gave us her perspective on the benefits of hiring an apprentice.
Centauri Therapeutics recognise the value of a junior scientist who is trained through the company. An apprenticeship equips juniors with the skills they really need, and this is especially helpful for a growing company. Emma has seen her apprentice go from not knowing a lot about being a Laboratory Scientist to running their own experiments, and their skills have been tailored to their area of work.
‘At the beginning, we needed to understand a little more about how it worked and what we needed to do’
Emma explains that, while it took some time at the beginning, hiring an apprentice took no longer than hiring new staff normally does. Now that the apprentice has settled into his role, he is able to handle most of the interaction with Kent himself. Aside from giving him one day a week to study, it has not been a lot of work for Centauri Therapeutics as an employer.
‘The great thing about an apprenticeship is that you can train them in a specific area so you are tailoring a person’s skills to your area of work.’
With the broad range of modules available to apprentices, Centauri Therapeutics and University of Kent have found it easy to tailor the course to his role. Emma emphasises how training young people is important not only for the business, but for the Kent community.
The complete interview is available here: https://www.yourfuturecareer.co.uk/success-stories/apprenticeships-tailor-skills-to-the-needs-of-a-business/#
If you are interested in one of our STEM apprenticeships, find out more here or contact us by emailing apprenticeships@kent.ac.uk.