Alan, 24, is from Carlisle and had previously attended Trinity School and Carlisle College, where he completed a BTEC Level 3 in IT and a Foundation Degree in Computing. Alan applied for the apprenticeship after the Upbeat North team gave a talk about the scheme at Carlisle College, and he hasn’t looked back since.
Alan says, “The great thing about the apprenticeship is that it’s not just learning about the theory in the classroom, you actually get to implement what you learn on day-to-day projects. Working alongside others also helps develop those other important life skills such as; communication and time management, as well as learning more about Drupal.
Alan recently attended a group training day in Manchester where all the apprentices met up for training sessions delivered by people from within the Drupal community. “It’s good to meet up with the other apprentices at group training days. It allows us to share our knowledge and experiences,” says Alan. “As an apprentice, you certainly get to do and learn a lot, especially where Drupal is concerned.”
Alan’s Drupal Web Developer Apprenticeship started in the Autumn of 2015 with two weeks of intensive boot camp training, designed and delivered by seasoned Drupal professionals. London based IT training company, Happy Computers, also provided two days of training per month during Alan’s apprenticeship to supplement workplace learning and develop his skillset.
Hydrant’s founder, Leo White says, “Hiring a Drupal Apprentice has been a great way to strengthen the productivity and profitability of our team by gaining a young, enthusiastic and talented addition to our workforce. Speaking as an employer, the apprenticeship has been a very cost effective way of building our team resources, while helping develop Alan’s skills and experience across a range of projects.”
Extra support was on hand throughout Alan’s placement from trainers, mentors, managers and colleagues as well as existing and past apprentices. And It's not just been good for business. Hiring a Drupal Apprentice has helped Upbeat have a positive effect on the Drupal open source community, and on the local community as well.
“Alan has made a valuable contribution to the Drupal development community as well as to Upbeat and in turn we’ve been able to offer secure employment to him and the opportunity to retain his skills and experience within the local economy,” says Leo.
ENDS
Notes to Editors:
Drupal is free, open source software that can be used to easily create and manage many types of Web sites and applications. It’s written in the PHP programming language and supports content management, collaborative authoring, newsletters, podcasts, image galleries, peer-to-peer networking, file uploads/downloads and more.
All Drupal Web Developer Apprentices work towards a new, nationally recognised, Drupal specific qualification developed by Drupal experts, which is accredited and funded by The Tech Partnership as a level 4 Tech Industry Gold Apprenticeship.
Upbeat North are Carlisle based technology problem solvers and support providers. We help clients with technology challenges not easily catered for by standard “off the shelf” products. We've been providing this service for over ten years to clients of all shapes and sizes across many sectors. Our main production office is in the centre of Carlisle, but we also have staff based in Newcastle, Oxford and Gloucester.
A high resolution jpg of Alan Saunders has been included as an attachment in the original email sent with this release. For more images, further information or to arrange an interview, please contact Operations Guardian, John Everingham on 01228 830001 Ext. 731 or at [email protected]
