On Wednesday 2 March 2016 Wessex Archaeology’s Lucy Dawson and Jessica Tibber ran a stand at the popular business event ‘Apprenticeships: Be Inspired’ in Sheffield city centre; organised by Skills Made Easy, a programme funded by the Sheffield City Region Local Enterprise Partnership. Over 750 school leavers and 60 businesses from across the South Yorkshire region were in attendance, including prominent national companies such as Amey, Keepmoat Homes, CITB, and TATA Steel. It was a chance to inspire this year’s school leavers and gauge future interest in the potential for Wessex Archaeology to start up an apprenticeship scheme of its own.
The event was a great success, with many visitors to the Wessex stand and a number of genuinely interested 16–18 year olds keen to embark on a career in the Heritage sector or archaeology specifically. It was particularly useful to be able to talk with the career advisors who accompanied the students, and answer their questions on what they should do when approached by a student who wants to be an archaeologist.