Business Admin

Dan Burton & his Apprenticeship Experience

This year has been one many would like to forget, but amidst all the doom and gloom we wanted to bring some good news by sharing Dan’s apprenticeship success!

Over the last two years, Dan Burton has been studying as a Business Admin Apprentice for RHC Lifting. Dan recently completed his apprenticeship with the amazing grades of Distinction, Distinction, Pass (DDP); his apprenticeship journey has been nothing short of personal successes and progressions, which is why we wanted to document how far he has come over the past two years…

Before his apprenticeship:

“When I initially found Professional Apprenticeships my CV was shambolic, but we worked on my CV together making it more specific to the Business Admin apprenticeship I was applying for; I truly believe this is one of the main factors which helped me land my apprenticeship.”

Rewinding the clock back four years to 2016 Dan was studying Business A-level, he soon realised that A-levels wasn’t for him so left halfway through, despite his passion for business and past work experience placement for a Financial Advisor. Whilst working full-time at McDonald’s Dan was on a job hunt for a business role. Dan is what you call a kinesthetic learner, in other words, someone who learns best through a practical, hands-on approach; he quickly discovered that an apprenticeship would be the best option for him as a learner and would be a great stepping stone into the Business world.

Did you know? The youth unemployment rate for men aged 16 – 24 years old is 16.4%, increased from 13.5% the year before.
– UK Parliament, June – August 2020

Through an online job site is where Dan discovered his Business Admin apprenticeship aka a Service Administrator for RHC Lifting, an overhead cranes engineer company. Soon after Dan had a call from Adam, the Co-Founder and Director of Professional Apprenticeships, which gave him the opportunity to tell Adam a bit about himself; Adam soon realised Dan’s potential, and therefore asked him to come in for a face-to-face interview. Together they worked on his CV to tailor it to the apprenticeship Dan applied for. An interview or two later with RHC lifting, meant Dan landed his first business role and had started his professional career…

After his apprenticeship:

“For me, this apprenticeship has led to many personal achievements, one of which has been my confidence; it has developed and grown so much! I now realise that my developed confidence is a transferable skill that will help me in many of my future endeavours.”

Dan describes his role of Service Administrator as being ‘the middleman’ between the business and the customer. This is an important role as Dan would often be a client’s first point of contact, which gives the client an initial and lasting impression of RHC Lifting. Therefore, Dan must not only have knowledge of his role but of RHC Lifting as a whole, everything from handsets and radios to the overhead cranes. Dan talks to the likes of engineers and even businesses based in Denmark/Finland who sells crane parts, dealing with their queries and passing them onto the relevant individuals.

Dan’s time at RHC Lifting helped develop him into becoming more of a ‘people’s person’, growing his confidence. Despite this Dan tells us his biggest challenge throughout the whole of his apprenticeship was his synoptic project. He had to create and present a presentation on business improvements; due to his initial lack of confidence, he was really worried about having to get up and speak in front of City and Guilds. However, his developed confidence was reflected in his studying and assessments as shown by his impressive overall grade of Distinction, Distinction, Pass!

Dan’s Top Tip: Preparation is key. Make sure you give yourself time and practice what you prepare, I did this for my EPA and synoptic project and felt a lot more confident and calmer going into it. I prepared for my End Point Assessment (EPA) by coming up with answers to potential questions the examiner may ask me.

Our latest news on Dan is he will be sticking around at RHC Lifting, becoming a full-fledged member of the team progressing into a more senior and challenging role – all the team here at Professional Apprenticeships wishes him a huge congratulations!