If you live in the UK you will know that in recent years, a new law came out to say that after you leave high school at the age of 16, you have to be in education until you turn 18. This can be college, sixth form, apprenticeship, and so on. I was months from turning 17 when I left high school (long story short, I didn't know any English when I came to the UK and they thought it was best to make me re-do a whole year to give me time to learn, 3 months into that year, I was fluent in English so hooray), this meant I would be able to do just one year of college instead of 2 years so I was pretty happy with that.
In the last few months of high school, I applied for over 80 apprenticeship positions per month in my town and surrounding areas, I had a few interviews here and there but never stayed. The apprenticeships I was applying for were mainly for reception, front of house, administration, sales, hairdressing and hotel management. If you live in the UK you will know this, but if you don't then let me quickly explain, colleges usually require you to apply for courses before September which is when the courses start. So, I had until September of that year to find an apprenticeship or I would have to go to college.
August came along and I just couldn't get into an apprenticeship, I was getting notifications to my email every day with the first line being ''you are the ideal candidate for this position, however, the position has already been filled at this time. We wish you good luck for the future''. It was driving me crazy. So I ended up looking on all the college websites in my area. I quickly decided there was no way I was going to a sixth form college so I limited my options a little. I had a look, I applied for a few hairdresser and beauty courses as I love all of that, and I also applied for business admininstration courses. Why did I apply for business administration courses? I really wanted an apprenticeship, that's what I have wanted for myself once I got out of high school ever since apprenticeships became this huge thing in the UK. Since administration fit with most of the apprenticeships opportunities I had been previously applying for, I decided that I would try this as a college course.
By this point it was now September and I got into the business administration course. The first few months of the course weren't too bad, everything was pretty organised and the coursework was easy to keep up with. But the last few months were hectic for me. I wasn't in a very good place with myself, I was having anxiety attacks almost daily and I simply couldn't focus on my coursework properly. In the last few months of the course, I did consider quitting just because I felt like I couldn't do it and I would rather quit something than end up with a bad grade or a fail to carry on my CV for the rest of my working life.
Good news though, I struggled but I didn't quit and I passed the course so everything was okay in the end. But it was super stressful and everything did drive me crazy towards the end, there was so much to do and so much to rush and I also had a hard time dealing with anxiety attacks at that point.
If I could go back and do it all over again for that course? Not really, I would have rather gone through all the stress for a course I would love to do as a job, like hairdressing or maybe even beauty. I feel like that would have been more worth my stress and struggle than a course I wanted to do thinking more of the money I could make in the future. I thought I would enjoy the course but I really didn't enjoy it in the last few months.
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