The Student Room Group

Anyone else giving/given up an apprenticeship/good job to go to uni?

This is my plan this year.

I'm currently year 3 of an apprenticeship, I've finished the main modern apprenticeship qualification and am now in my first year HNC which I am doing purely because my workplace want me to.

It suddenly hit home a few months ago that this isn't what I want to do with the rest of my life so I've applied to uni.

I am still unsure if i'll go through with it, and just wanted to know if anyone else is/has gone through the same?

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I will be giving up my Dental Nurse job this September to study my access to medicine course, well that is if they have accepted me, will definitely lead to constraints on the pocket but in the long term I'm certain its the best decision. I would go for a degree in Biomed Science, Dentistry or Pharmacy still haven't decided.

If your not happy with what your doing at present don't make the mistake of sticking to it unless your 100% confident that you won't regret it one day. The 3 years you already have should be more than enough to keep you employable throughout your years.

I did a simplistic Business & Admin apprenticeship for a year and have found with some hunting that jobs are available to me, fortunately.
Reply 2
Original post by mike101
This is my plan this year.

I'm currently year 3 of an apprenticeship, I've finished the main modern apprenticeship qualification and am now in my first year HNC which I am doing purely because my workplace want me to.

It suddenly hit home a few months ago that this isn't what I want to do with the rest of my life so I've applied to uni.

I am still unsure if i'll go through with it, and just wanted to know if anyone else is/has gone through the same?


wat was ur apprenticeship?
Reply 3
Im doing an accouting apprenticeship now, going to finish my first year so I'm part qualified then heading to UNI next year.
Going to uni for the excact same reason you are, I can't do this for 40-50 years.
Im 23 and given up my 23.5k a year job to study from home and hopefully go to uni in september :redface:
Reply 5
I quit a reasonably well paid job to go to university. Quite a few reasons why I did it, mostly to have a break from 9 to 5 in an office after over a decade. Options were 9 to 5 in a different office or get out and go to university and figure the long term future afterwards.

No regrets at all.
Reply 6
Original post by Jamil1987
wat was ur apprenticeship?


Electrical engineering.

Its good money really, my 4 years prospects are around £33K + car which isn't bad for up north. My 4 year prospects if I do the degree is a £20K-£30k graduate job, if I'm lucky.

But its not for me really, I'm good at it, but its not what I want to do, and with a degree I would hope my longer term prospects are better.

Good to hear I'm not alone in giving up, I'm giving up £21K at the moment to go to uni, and it will be hard :frown:
I've worked with a few people that did apprenticeships (mostly Mech Eng), then later on did a degree in their relevant field. They were, without doubt, better engineers for having done both than those who had just gone straight down the degree route.
Reply 8
I'm giving up my businesses to go to Uni. It will be a complete nightmare financially and a complete downgrade in lifestyle, but it will be worth it.
Reply 9
I gave up my job as an industrial electrician last august to go along the uni route for accounting. I had been working for the same company for 6 years, 3 were apprenticeship, and had the carrot dangled many times with promises of HNC's and other electrical qualifications, but they never seemed to happen. I was earning good money, 35K and had a company van, but worked 60 plus hours every week and would most likely have been in the same position in ten years time, much like many of my colleagues were.
So I think this route will be beneficial in the long run, even if the money takes along time to get back to what it was, at least I'm not slogging my guts out, lining somebody elses pockets.
Reply 10
Yeah, I gave up a reasonably well paid job to go on an Access course and will be off to uni (hopefully Cambridge) in September :smile:

No regrets at all, but I do miss the money!
Reply 11
How odd, here is me preparing to reject my university offers if I get a place on an apprenticeship I'm interested in.
Reply 12
Original post by sparky86
I gave up my job as an industrial electrician last august to go along the uni route for accounting. I had been working for the same company for 6 years, 3 were apprenticeship, and had the carrot dangled many times with promises of HNC's and other electrical qualifications, but they never seemed to happen. I was earning good money, 35K and had a company van, but worked 60 plus hours every week and would most likely have been in the same position in ten years time, much like many of my colleagues were.
So I think this route will be beneficial in the long run, even if the money takes along time to get back to what it was, at least I'm not slogging my guts out, lining somebody elses pockets.


Thats what got me, where I work I'm the 2nd youngest at 21, there's a 20 y/o apprentice too. Then the age range of technicians ranges from 26 - 60. Its a roof you hit, and yes they are all on around £33k + a car with not much overtime, just a 9-5 week but thats it.

I dont want to be that person, stuck in the same job, doing the same thing, til I die.

But then I have a good day at work like today and start thinking its not all bad.
Reply 13
i gave up my full time sales job which earnt me in excess of 35k a year to go part time in customer service job that pays be about 10k a year to study my access to he course! and i tell you what.......best decision i ever made, dont get me wrong i have the gift of the gab and could sell snow to the eskimos but if i hadnt of given that up i wouldnt of found something else (Law) that im really good at! best decision ive ever made!

and if for any reason i decide that univeristy isnt for me i already have a back up plan....im going to join the navy!
Reply 14
I have been with current company for 11 years and have worked my bum off to get where I am, but have now hit a roof! I won't ever earn any more (30k, but for inner London) and I won't be able to progress any further. And although I love what I do, the thought that this is it for the next 40+ years of my life is enough to make me weep!

I've been exposed to a lot of legislation and local licensing laws through my job and have a genuine interest in it so it seems like a logical route to get a law degree and do something that's challenging and has amazing prospects!
Reply 15
Original post by mike101

Original post by mike101
Thats what got me, where I work I'm the 2nd youngest at 21, there's a 20 y/o apprentice too. Then the age range of technicians ranges from 26 - 60. Its a roof you hit, and yes they are all on around £33k + a car with not much overtime, just a 9-5 week but thats it.

I dont want to be that person, stuck in the same job, doing the same thing, til I die.

But then I have a good day at work like today and start thinking its not all bad.


Yes I know what you mean on a good day it can actually be quite fulfilling, but looking at the others around me I could see that I had hit a peak and I couldn't stick doing that for another 40 years of my working life.
Reply 16
I'm 22 and giving up my reasonably paid job (30-33k p/a) to go onto an Access Course in September and then hopefully Uni in a year. Like other people I looked at my colleagues and thought I don't want that to be me in 30 years time. I'm having to sell my beloved Audi TT as I won't be able to afford to run it on a part time job but I have no regrets at all.
Reply 17
Im giving up my job to go to uni in Sept and i cant wait. Theres not much prospect here and although they pile training courses into us they wont promote us or give us a pay rise, just extra work! So im offskie to get a job i really want at the end of it.
Reply 18
I had a fairly good job in finance, working with really nice people and my boss had just told me that if I applied for a very competitive promotion I was likely to get it. With this promotion I would have been contracted in to the company for another 18months!!

Went to uni, then did a master's degree and am now deciding whether to go into research or healthcare. Either career is much more interesting and rewarding then finance, regardless of the work load and difference in income this was by far the best decision I've made in a long time.

Goodluck whatever you decide.
Original post by VJW2010
I quit a reasonably well paid job to go to university. Quite a few reasons why I did it, mostly to have a break from 9 to 5 in an office after over a decade. Options were 9 to 5 in a different office or get out and go to university and figure the long term future afterwards.


THIS

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