Josh Freer is a Level 4 Business Administration Apprentice and Project Co-ordinator at Premier Pitches, one of the UKs leading sports turf contractors. His job gives him the chance to combine his passion for sport with developing a career in business.
He told us how his apprenticeship is helping him to develop an exciting career:
“Before I came to Premier Pitches I studied sport at university but towards the end of my course I didn’t have much idea about what I wanted to do next. When I found this job it felt like a perfect fit. As a sports fan, working with football, rugby and cricket clubs as well as horse racecourses across the UK and Europe sounded exciting.
When my boss and I looked at different ways to develop my business administration skills, an apprenticeship offered the best mix of modules to suit the role and the organisation’s needs.
My day to day role involves organising plant equipment and organising the logistics of jobs. I look after our project management software to plan our day to day workload. I also organise maintenance of our machinery, keep in contact with clients and I am responsible for ensuring our health and safety policies are up to date.
I am office based for most of the year but in our busiest season I spend a lot of time at the Manchester City ground co-ordinating projects there. I have to ensure we work effectively with the grounds security team, groundsmen and our own teams.
My apprenticeship has helped me massively day to day. I have been able to streamline many of our administrative processes as a direct result. I already feel more knowledgeable about leadership and how to manage staff.
Being able to get the qualification alongside working means I can apply what I am learning to the things I am doing every day. During 3 months of the year when we are at our busiest I don’t get time to study or attend a college course so the apprenticeship is flexible enough to fit around that.
Aside from all the business knowledge I have gained, I’ve had some really good opportunities as part of this job. We work with Paris-St- Germain so I have been to their ground. A few years ago when we were working at Manchester City we were fortunate enough to see and hold the premier league trophy. I am a massive rugby fan so a particular highlight for me was visiting Murrayfield and the Aviva. We go to training grounds and see the first teams training so there are some amazing perks to the job.
Studying on an apprenticeship has given me all these opportunities. It doesn’t matter if you are just leaving school or you are developing your career. An apprenticeship helps you fill a gap in your knowledge and develop your skills. It doesn’t matter what job you are doing or how old you are, an apprenticeship can have a huge impact.”