APPRENTICES
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Chalfont & Latimer London Underground station doesn’t feel like it belongs to the capital’s train network. Travelling there from the centre of the city takes you past rolling fi elds and quaint rural views you don’t often
see from a London Underground carriage. Today Chalfont & Latimer is being run by Station Manager Shauni O’Neill, a bright 18-year-old who’s beginning her own journey through the ranks at London Underground. In the ticket offi ce, the station phone rings, but before
answering it Shauni checks the station sign to remind herself where she is today; Chalfont & Latimer is not her usual place of work. A phone call at 5am this morning informed her that the Station Manager was ill and that she had to move from her post, Moor Park, to replace him. Shauni’s on the reserve Station Manager list for 11 stations, and it soon becomes clear that early-morning adaptability isn’t her only talent. Talking to Shauni, it quickly transpires that she’s a dream
employee. Relentlessly driven, committed to developing herself and her skills, and impossibly cheerful for fi rst thing on a weekday morning. After completing her two-year London Underground apprenticeship in July 2011 she was crowned London Underground Apprentice of the Year, London Apprentice of the Year and UK Apprentice of the Year. She’s on fi rst-name terms with London Underground directors, many of them former apprentices who jokingly comment that Shauni will soon be fi lling their shoes. Shauni brushes off the attention – she wants to go even
further and become Commissioner of Transport for London (TfL). ‘From school I’ve always felt that life is a competition,’ she says. ‘It’s simple – you’re never going to succeed by doing the bare minimum.’
GETTING THERE
Shauni’s route to apprenticeship excellence started when her dad came home one evening from his job as a Trains Manager for London Underground. ‘Dad told me about an apprentice at his depot,’ says Shauni. ‘I thought apprentices just made the tea, but he told me: “No, he’s going to be the equivalent of me one day, he’s getting trained, he’s going to get his NVQs, he’s getting paid a salary and has the option of doing a degree later on in his career.” I thought that sounded like a pretty good deal.’ Beating 7,000 applicants, Shauni was one of the 15
operational apprentices that TfL takes on each year. ‘I was 15 at the time and had only just sat my GCSEs,’ said Shauni. ‘I got good grades, As and Bs, so I could have gone into sixth form to start my A-Levels. My teachers were saying that I’m too intelligent to do an apprenticeship – but now they’ve seen that I’ve done well and it’s a viable option, I’ve been invited back to school to talk about it.’
ENERGETIC APPRENTICES
In June 2011, the National Apprenticeship Service, in partnership with City & Guilds, released a list of the Top 100 Apprenticeship Employers of 2011. The list highlights the range of sectors apprentices can get involved in. EDF
26 | BROADSHEET 178 | WINTER
‘Earning a good salary at a young age is incredible. If I’d gone to university like many of my friends, I’d already be in lots of debt’
Energy was awarded for its Advanced Nuclear Apprenticeship Scheme, which focuses on the skills needed to maintain nuclear power stations. Gwen Parry-Jones, Campus Project
Director for EDF Energy, said, ‘The energy industry offers long-term
opportunities and apprenticeships are a great way for young people to learn new skills that will serve them well for the whole of their career.’
See the Top 100 list at
www.million-extra.co. uk/
top_100_apprenticeship_employers.aspx
www.cityandguilds.com/broadsheet
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