Modern Apprenticeships at SQA

Our Modern Apprenticeship programmes are a great opportunity to develop your skills and start your career in a supportive and dynamic environment.

Develop skills, gain a qualification, and get paid.

Work towards a qualification and get on-the-job training
Get support to identify career goals
Choose between 1-year and 2-year Modern Apprenticeship programmes
Get a monthly salary and access to a range of staff benefits

Get qualified

We offer both one- and two-year Modern Apprenticeship programmes where you will gain an industry-recognised qualification that will help you to progress in your future career or further education.

For both programmes, you will work towards a Scottish Vocational Qualification (SVQ) in Business and Administration, which is assessed on the job.

For the two-year programme, you will also be working towards a Higher National Certificate (HNC) in Business, which you will study at college on day release.

What opportunities can it lead to?

Once you achieve your Modern Apprenticeship, you can choose to apply for a permanent role with SQA or with another employer.

To date, 89% of our Modern Apprenticeship graduates have either secured permanent positions at SQA or gone on to secure employment, further training or education at college or university.

Role summary

As a Modern Apprentice, you will develop your business and administration skills by having responsibility for a variety of relevant work activities and business-focused learning opportunities. You will spend time in various teams throughout SQA, where you will play a key role and gain valuable skills.

You will also work closely with a career development mentor to help you identify your career goals and gain the right experience from the programme.

We will work with you to develop employability skills, and give you the opportunity to demonstrate these throughout your placement. You may also have the opportunity to apply for other roles within SQA once you have completed your apprenticeship.

The support from my line manager and the rest of my team have been so good as they have been very supportive and helpful in order for me to be feeling settled in, they have spent each day teaching me new skills and information.

Role and responsibilities - more detail

Over the course of your Modern Apprenticeship, you will provide administrative support to a specific business area within SQA, and gain practical knowledge and experience in a variety of working environments:

providing administrative support to business areas across SQA, eg diary management for teams, room bookings, raising and processing purchase orders and invoices, and communicating with other teams and external colleagues
following SQA's current process and procedures, and contributing to our continuous improvement commitments
providing a high level of customer service, by responding to queries quickly and accurately, and building and maintaining positive customer relationships
being a positive ambassador for the Modern Apprenticeship programme at internal and external events

You will also be responsible for working towards your qualification. Time will be set aside for you to do this, but you will be responsible for completing any assignments you have been given. You will also be assigned an assessor who will assist you with completing your SVQ and/or HNC.

Where you'll work

We have two office locations - our Lowden office at Shawfair Business Park near Dalkeith on the outskirts of Edinburgh, and our office in Glasgow city centre.

We operate a smarter working programme, so you may not be based in our offices 100% of the time - you may also be asked to work from home.

Benefits

SQA Modern Apprenticeships offer a highly competitive rate of pay, and many other benefits:

Starting salary - £20,808 per year
Annual leave - 27 days per calendar year (plus 14 public holidays)
Savings - make everyday savings with supermarkets, cinemas, holidays, clothing and electronic retailers (through our SQA Lifestyles platform)
Qualification - an SVQ (or SVQ and HNC for the two-year programme).

Find out what other SQA benefits are availible to you as a Modern Apprentice.

The team has been excellent in helping me gain new skills and processes. I've found that there is so many people to talk to such as Mentors, Buddies and Line Managers

Entry requirements

There are no formal entry requirements for the one-year Modern Apprenticeship.

For the two-year Modern Apprenticeship programme, you must have a Higher in a business-related subject such as English, Mathematics, Social Sciences, Economics, Business Management and/or Administration.

For both the one- and two-year programmes, you must also be able to show us evidence in your application/interview of the following skills:

a good level of written and verbal communication skills
be able to use Microsoft Office including Outlook, Excel, and Word
an understanding of how to be customer-focused
be capable of planning your day and prioritising tasks and activities

Apply for a Modern Apprenticeship at SQA

You can choose from the following vacancies: