APPRENTICES TALENT OF TOMORROW


Graduate Paul Maxwell completed degrees in marketing and advertising before realising he wanted a diff erent career path – starting his journey to becoming an electrician


Hi Paul, did you always want to become an electrician? When I fi nished school I didn’t know what I wanted to do. One of my friends had studied marketing and enjoyed it so I applied to do that at university. After I graduated, I did a Masters in advertising but when I fi nished and started working, I realised it wasn’t for me. I didn’t want a nine-to-fi ve job, I wanted to do something more hands-on. A lot of my family are electricians, so I thought it was something I could do too. I did a pre-app course and it was completely diff erent to what I’d done before. I got on well though and enjoyed the challenge, which helped me work harder. A couple of weeks into it, I realised this was what I wanted to do.


Was it diffi cult to get an apprenticeship?


Companies contacted the college and they helped us fi nd places. I started with one company but then COVID happened and, as they were a small business, they couldn’t aff ord to keep an apprentice on. A few weeks later the college put me in touch with Alexanders. I had the interview on the Monday and started work on the Tuesday.


How have you found it so far? At fi rst, I was slightly worried because I was ten years older than some of the other people in my class. But I’m doing something I enjoy so that doesn’t matter. I’ve got more life experience and I’ve got a more mature attitude when it comes to coursework and deadlines because


44 CABLEtalk JUNE/JULY 2021


NAME: Paul Maxwell AGE: 27 POSITION: Stage 1 apprentice WORKS: A. Alexander & Son (Electrical) Ltd STUDIES: West College Scotland, Clydebank Campus HOBBIES: Going to the gym with friends


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