Student Case Study: Gill Clarke – Joules

Today we caught up with one of our Apprentices, Gill Clarke, who works at Joules in Carlisle. Gill has been on the programme since the 25^th of May 2021 and is completing the Level 3 Retail Team Leader Apprenticeship.

Gill told Qube: ‘I applied for the Apprenticeship as I wanted to build on my knowledge of Retail Management and develop my skills further in retail fashion industry. So far I have really enjoyed researching into our brand, competitors and various management styles as I enjoy training colleagues and watching them develop. I am now able to do key holding shifts as a result of my training and have developed confidence to take on duties above my sales assistant role.’

‘My biggest challenge is living with dyslexia; I was only diagnosed with this around ten years ago, but now, after many private lessons from my dyslexia tutor, I can enjoy reading books and much more. Learning a new job or task is very challenging for me as my ability to retain information is poor due by bad short-term memory and my auditory memory being inefficient; I have however overcome this by making a detailed training book of how to do everything I need to do each day.’

‘Learning how to study again after 10 years was a big undertaking for me as I am a very slow reader and I can’t remember what I have read so I need to make detailed notes to help me process information. I then need to over learn everything at home to embed this into my long term memory and this is time consuming and tiring.’

‘My next steps after completing the Apprenticeship programme are to continue to learn from my management team and other colleagues. To carry on working hard for Joules and keep on selling working towards targets which is something I enjoy. My career goals are to one day be a Supervisor for Joules. I would say to anyone who is considering starting an Apprenticeship programme that they shouldn’t be put off by any learning difficulties they have or if they have not studied in a long time as both my Skills Tutor, Mark Illingworth and additional support from, Sam Campbell from Qube Learning have been supportive and helpful to me. You can achieve anything with hard work and the right support.’

For more information on current Apprenticeship opportunities available via the Qube recruitment division ‘Qube Talent’, please click here.