Amy Thomson is a Consultant at 3Keel, in our Commodity Supply Chain business unit. She began her career at 3Keel in 2020 as our first apprentice.

Carole Scott, Head of Communications, interviewed Amy to find out about her experience as an apprentice and how it has supported her career.

Amy: Mine was a one-year, Level 3 business administration apprenticeship through LDN Apprenticeships. At the time, the Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability course didn’t exist – that’s what our current apprentices study.

Carole: And what made you think about doing an apprenticeship?

Amy: From school days onwards, I have always been interested in sustainability and the natural world. I had originally planned to go to university, which didn’t work out. I ended up having my son instead.

When I was looking to get back into work after three years of being a mum, I was hoping to find work that has a purpose. I had my future in mind. I was looking for an opportunity that I could turn into a career and enjoy forever.

I found the 3Keel opportunity on the government apprenticeships website. I didn’t have an exact idea of what I was looking for; I didn’t know what existed. Nobody had spoken to me about apprenticeships before. It came up as a business administration opportunity and I clicked through and what I read was great. 3Keel sounded amazing. It was an absolute ‘fall into your lap’ kind of moment.

Carole: What did the apprenticeship cover?

Amy: All sorts of things, from project management to how to engage stakeholders. It wasn’t directly linked to being a sustainability consultant. It just happened to be the most suitable one that they could offer. Later, Will [Will Schreiber, one of our directors] wrote a module for the Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability apprenticeship that was being developed, which meant that subsequent apprentices had something more tailoured to our line of business.

Carole: And how did it work in terms of your time?

Amy: It was an 80:20 split work and study. I chose a dedicated day each week for study. The learning was all online because of the pandemic. I never met my fellow apprentices. But given that LDN Apprenticeships is in London and this was my first job, balancing it with being a mum, the fully online aspect of it wasn’t inconvenient. I have a whole family life here that I had to carry on.

Carole: How was the study organised – did you have exams or was it all coursework?

Amy: They have an online learning platform, which you use at your own pace. The marked aspects are two pieces of work. The first details how you’ve met the knowledge, skills and behaviours targets – there’s a list of about 50 – giving real life examples from your work. Mine ended up being about 40 pages. I was examined on that, with questions based on what I’d written.

The second piece was completing an internal project; something that I was responsible for. It’s about 12 weeks of work, you create a presentation and the course leaders ask questions. I worked with 3Keel’s Head of Design to redesign the Sustainable Commodities section of the website, managing the project.

Carole: What did you enjoy about the course and what else would you have liked from it?

Amy: I enjoyed loads of things about it. I met lots of nice people (all virtually) and made a few friends. I developed a good relationship with LDN, which has benefited me because I’ve carried on working with them, as I’ve managed two apprentices who joined after me.

Ultimately, the apprenticeship secured me a role here at 3Keel, which I’m so grateful for.
Obviously, it wasn’t sustainability specific, so I learned about that directly through work. Our apprentices do now get more specific details on those topics. It would’ve been great if I had the same. But overall, it was a great success.

Carole: In addition to the web project, what type of work did you do at 3Keel during the apprenticeship.

Amy: I was working on sustainable commodities, focusing on palm oil, being involved in the Palm Oil Transparency Coalition traders survey and on the annual data collection. This year was my sixth! I spent a lot of time upskilling on things like Power Bi, and that’s now one of my favourite things to do.

Because the apprenticeship was business admin, I had to broaden my scope, so halfway through, Caroline (Head of People) took me under her wing and I did two days a week in HR. I worked on contracts and on our benefits programme, which was being revamped.

Carole: How did the transition from being an apprentice to being a consultant work? At what point did 3Keel start talking about you having a longer-term place in the company?

Amy: Before I’d had my final grade, they were clear that they’d love to keep me on. I had the choice of working in HR or in Commodities as a junior consultant. I chose HR and was enjoying it. I did it for a year and then I realised that I belonged in the consultancy side of the business. I just wanted to be more frontline and I wanted to be back in my data sets!

It felt like a difficult conversation to have – admitting that I had changed my mind. Nothing sums up 3Keel better than the fact when I had to admit that I made the wrong decision for myself they were fine about it.

Carole: What do you like most about your role now?

Amy: I love data! Give me 50 spreadsheets and I’ll sit there all day. I just love looking at data, analysing data, making data useful and, yes, talking about it!

Carole: So, what do you think about apprenticeships as an alternative route to university?

Amy: I think it’s amazing. It’s changed my life because I went from being unemployed to having real world experience from day one. I have plenty of friends went to university in a similar field, and they aren’t as happy in their role as I am. I really can’t sing apprenticeships’ praises highly enough.

For my situation, with having a young child, I could have tried to go to university, but it would’ve been difficult. It probably wouldn’t have worked out.

It’s not spoken about enough at the end of your school journey. In sixth form, I don’t think apprenticeships were even mentioned as a possibility.

Carole: I’m interested to know what it’s like line-managing incoming apprentices. Having been one yourself, does it make you more aware of the specific support somebody undertaking study at the same time as working might need?

Amy: 100%. And I felt less intimidated when Ibrahim (our second apprentice) was joining. It made me feel more comfortable. I think it helped him as well. While we didn’t do the same course, I understand how their platform works. I understand the journey. I was able to offer advice on effective ways to retain the information from the online learning system and I understood how you can meet the KSBs (Knowledge, Skills and Behaviour) and what good evidence looks like.

I was managed by Will, a director, and it was a fantastic experience but, on the whole, I think having a line manager that has had a similar experience can be really valuable.

One of the things Will said about my apprenticeship has always stayed with me; the responsibility of the apprenticeship is not to fill a gap in resource. We need to take them on a journey first. I think my response was ‘but you’re having to spend so much time helping me; surely it’s not effective?’ And his response was brilliant – ‘it will be in the future’.

I hope we get to a stage where each business unit and at least one core services department has an apprentice every year.