Meet the Apprentices - Meet Sol Riches, Norwich City Council

Each day during #NAW2020 we will be introducing you to inspirational apprentices and rising stars, working in Local Government in the East of England, who blaze their own trail.

I am Sol Riches and I work for Norwich City Council within the customer contact team completing an apprenticeship in customer services, gaining a NVQ Level 2 award as a result.

Before this I was at Sixth Form at Thorpe St Andrew completing A-Levels in maths, further maths and physics. I chose to do an apprenticeship because I wanted to gain workplace experience as well as study at the same time, which was the main reason why I didn’t want to go to university.

I have enjoyed my time working at my local authority and I am looking forward to finding ways of being able to improve my workplace knowledge and skills. Working and studying at the same time is great because my employer gives me time and they are flexible enough so that I can complete work that relates to the course and the job role too.

Apprenticeships are the best way of getting in to work as they help you to gain workplace skills as well as gaining a qualification at the end of it.

In the next five years I hope to become a team leader/manager so then I can further improve my skills base which I am constantly improving thanks to my apprenticeship.

Apprenticeships give the opportunity to look beyond traditional routes into employment and allow you to explore a diverse range of career options in local government and beyond. Our #NAW2020 feature provides just a small taster of the true value that an apprenticeship can bring, to both individuals, local authorities and the wider community in the East of England.