Muaadh is a 3rd year apprentice working in the advanced analytics team within the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ). We caught up with Muaadh to discuss what inspired him to pursue an apprenticeship, his experiences and the work he’s accomplished at DESNZ.
How has your personal identity affected your professional development as an apprentice?
Growing up in one of London’s most economically challenged boroughs, made me understand that my identity is not a limitation but a lens which I can see my own development through. I’ve also learnt that representation isn’t just about being within the room, it’s about contributing towards the conversation. When I walk into meetings, I’m not just bringing my technical skills, but also lived experiences that provide a unique insight.
A lot of challenging concepts are broken down better when we have a diverse set of minds tackling it. Take an example of working on policies to do with the green economy at DESNZ. It’s important for there to be a contribution from the young people and as an apprentice you can bring in the voice of the newer generation.
What inspired you to choose an apprenticeship over the traditional path?
This decision has multilayers to it. Anyone choosing an apprenticeship, especially a few years ago over the normal educational path was them going against the current and facing a path of resistance. However, I wanted to challenge that orthodoxy, look at all my routes and see what options suited my circumstances best. So, when I saw an apprenticeship, it was a perfect solution, because I could simultaneously learn and create immediate impacts with the work that I do.
On top of that, I questioned the conventional narrative of success; it has a few caveats and problems. In this narrative everyone goes to university, accumulates debt, and enters a very saturated job market. Instead of choosing this, an apprenticeship allowed me to be an active participant within the job market whilst also getting that university experience.
Furthermore, when I reflected over my A levels, I noticed that what I particularly enjoyed was the transition from theory to real world application. How can this benefit society? How can we create products from it? The transition between theory to practical real-world applications is one of the reasons why I chose an apprenticeship, because the university side (the theories) are being applied Monday to Thursday.
So those were the two broader reasons, but it also came down to the financial element too, especially at the time when I applied the cost of living was very high and the university fees was quite a detriment to a lot of low-income families. As a Muslim as well, one of the principles of my faith is that we cannot take an interest-bearing loan and the only way I could have gone to university is by taking a loan. This made an apprenticeships an ideal fit for my personal circumstances as I did not have to compromise in my religion.
How do you feel your apprenticeship has prepared you differently from someone pursuing the conventional route?
It’s quite interesting to see a teenager working in government and being given these opportunities that potentially I would have not had at university. With university, it’s much harder to develop skills like negotiation and seeing the bigger picture in terms of the industry itself.
Unlike those traditional pathways, I’ve been very fortunate to be directly involved in multi billion-pound policy implementation, data-driven analysis for decarbonisation, working on the cutting edge of advanced analytics and applying that in the energy sector. From that perspective, it’s really made me a bit more mature.
But beyond that? Once you start a job, it’s different to what you’re previously thinking the sector is like. Before being an apprentice, I thought an economist role was how A level economics was taught, but it’s starkly different. Once you work the job, it is a different board game. It’s more specific, much more tailored, and there’s a lot of data, much more than you do at A level. An apprenticeship gives you a better understanding of the role.
Compared to my colleagues who went to university who are also in their 3rd year of study like me, I’ve got a much more detailed understanding of what I want to pursue within the economics industry and what niches I think I’ll be valuable to.
What niches do you want to explore?
I’ve decided on the intersection between data science and economics. Coming from a maths and physics background, I enjoy that element of applying data to real world scenarios.
What advice would you give others considering an apprenticeship?
Before I share my advice, it’s important to demystify the idea that apprenticeships are inferior, an apprenticeship can be a strategic launchpad, not a compromise.
In term of advice to applicants, it is multidimensional. Firstly, make sure to research extensively. This research is not limited to reading the website itself. When I say research extensively, it also means reaching out to people on LinkedIn and especially apprentices themselves who are in that role because they’ll have ‘gold dust’ information about what the role is.
The second thing is building a robust network. This is important because having a network helps us to understand the role further. For example, what the prospects are or understanding the career path itself.
Most crucially, view your unique background as your greatest asset and not a hindrance. That’s important because a lot of people don’t apply just because they think they don’t match within these circles or they can’t, or they can’t contribute to the to the bigger picture. I applied to over 30 and I got around 5 offers so it’s also a game of applying. Even for this scheme, we were told that thousands applied and there were very limited spaces available but if you don’t try you don’t get.
Did you ever get imposter syndrome and how did you overcome this?
Yeah, I think when I first joined there was that element of imposter syndrome, especially with my first year where I got a lot of exposure to ministers, which usually doesn’t happen. There were elements where I was questioning, am I the right fit for this job? Especially with the fact that the first six months of any role, usually there’s a lot of learning to do. However, that’s not your fault because you are learning how things work in your company.
What really helped that was the line management, mentors and the support from the university. When you think about it, only a few people got the role, and thousands applied so this means that you did something right and you’ve got something special.
The first point where this impostor syndrome died down was when I completed a civil service hackathon. Here I learnt that sometimes it’s not about what technical skills you possess, rather how you fit as a piece of the puzzle. The hackathon was to do with AI and making government more efficient. The people in my team had minimum master’s or PHD’s in computer science, and I was an apprentice with only my A levels, so it felt quite daunting.
I thought, you know what, I’m probably not going to have the most technical skills, but I’ll see where I can contribute from the perspective of ideas, project management, user interface and graphical design. Funnily enough, we actually won that hackathon and also, I had a big role in the project management and ideation element.
Since working at DESNZ, you’ve done lots of work on energy and climate change—how does this show the importance of people in economics?
Economics is often misunderstood as a cold, numerical discipline but my work, particularly in Net Zero, demonstrate that it’s a human story of adaption.
When we are analysing building emissions or developing decarbonisation grants, it’s not just about manipulating data points, it about understanding that what we are doing has an impact on people. It’s quite humbling and a huge responsibility when I think about this. A lot of our recommendations, and our analysis represents real lives; families struggling with energy costs, communities vulnerable to climate change, young people anxious about their environmental future, etc.
Answering these questions about how policy will impact working class families, heating bills etc, is, in my opinion, quite a humbling experience. It makes you much more motivated to continue working and to excel within this profession and specifically within this industry too.
How do people’s needs and choices influence the solutions you develop?
Economic solutions are really about helping people and communities grow stronger. While we use data to understand things like culture, personal goals, and how people interact, the goal isn’t just about numbers. Economic policies should create opportunities, not just improve efficiency.
A truly human-centred approach to economics, like in development, isn’t just about focusing on GDP growth. It’s about giving people more power to shape their own lives, providing meaningful jobs, and improving social mobility. It’s also about better health, access to education, and more. At the core, economics is about using resources to help people reach their full potential, not just perfect statistics.