Young Engineer for Britain prize winners and our Arkwright Scholars are invited to become SIM Company apprentices. Serving Liverymen also sponsor apprentices who have shown a strong interest in STEM subjects. Apprentices are usually at school or college and are about to embark on their A-Levels (or equivalent)
What does this mean? What's in it for me? What good can it do?
Well, for a start, you can forget the traditional image of working your fingers to the bone for next to nothing while sleeping on a cold workshop floor! Each SIM Apprentice is linked to an experienced, senior Liveryman - an Apprentice Master - who is there to support and mentor his or her apprentice during A-level years and right through to university graduation.
Remember, all SIM Liverymen, by definition, have to be senior people in the scientific instrument industry and an apprenticeship gives you unprecedented access to their experience. For example, maybe you are unsure which A2s you should take, whether or not you should consider a gap year, or which universities might offer you the best course. Your SIM mentor can offer unbiased advice. Maybe it would be good to get another opinion on what career might suit you. Apprentice Masters will treat you as an adult and can offer unbiased advice, based on their own tremendous experience. It's really useful. Your Apprentice Master is there, not so much to keep an eye on you, but more to offer a pair of willing and interested ears!
The other side of being a SIM Apprentice is that you will be able to attend SIM functions in you own right at half price. What's that all about??
Remember, SIM is a traditional City of London Livery Company. Within a traditionally formal, but friendly framework, Liveries have developed into quintessential networking organisations.
SIM Liverymen include in their ranks Engineers, both mechanical and electronic, Scientists from all disciplines: Nanotechnology, Nuclear and Medical Physics, Genetics, Astronomy - the list is exhausting! Liverymen come from both the private and public sectors and from industry and academe. Not only will you be able to attend talks and some dinners, but you will be encouraged to mix with and meet them. It's up to you how much you take advantage of this, but it's MUCH BETTER THAN YOU MIGHT THINK and a great preparation for your future.
WHAT ABOUT SOME MONEY?
Apart from all this, the icing on the cake is that you will be eligible for a SCHOLARSHIP OF £500 Per Year for EACH YEAR of your UNDERGRADUATE COURSE for a maximum of four years - £2000! HOW GOOD IS THAT?
And at the termination of your four-year apprenticeship, you you will be invited to become a SIM FREEMAN and a Freeman of the City of London.
A SIM Apprenticeship is a fantastic opportunity.
