LawsOn Thinking's Apprentices

by Brian Lawson

Brian has always had a passion for working with young people, driven by his flair for sharing knowledge and expertise and complimented by the innovation and inspiration brought to us by young apprentices. LawsOn Thinking have had a total of 6 apprentices throughout the years and each one has put their own special stamp on the business. We often find ourselves learning as much from apprentices as they learn from us!

We are very excited about our newest addition to the team, Maisie Higginbotham, and thought it would be good for her to share her story of the route she took after leaving school!

Maisie Higginbotham (far right) celebrates our 10th Anniversary with us 


My name is Maisie Higginbotham and I recently joined the Lawson Thinking team in May this year. I am 17 years old and left school in June 2015. I am currently the Office Administrator for the company and my job type is an apprenticeship.
When I was getting ready to leave secondary school, I didn’t at all think about going down the apprenticeship route, as I hadn’t heard much about them or fully know what they were; so I was just focused on going straight to college and having a part-time job on the side.
I got a job at a well-known fast-food chain around August time of 2015 and was so excited that I had gotten my first ever job, but that soon wore off as I couldn’t seem to fit in very well there, so transferred to a different store around a month and a half later where I had a few friends already at. I quickly fit in there and actually really enjoyed my time working there.

Meanwhile, at college, I had applied to do A-levels in psychology, art and history as they were my favourite subjects at school, but wasn’t too sure if they were for me anymore when I went to my college ‘taster day’. I quickly decided before college started, that I no longer wanted to do A-levels and changed onto a BTEC public services course as my dream at the time was to be a police officer, but once again, I had changed my mind on my career path.
I started college in September and quickly began to dislike the course and found it difficult finding my place with the people on the course also, so started to not attend as it made me really unhappy.

In December 2015 I left college and started to work full time at the fast-food restaurant. I really loved my job because of the great people that worked there also, which was a huge contrast to where I was before. I continued working at here happily up until March/ April 2016 as our store had been redesigned and become ‘more professional’-in a way- and began to change a lot of people’s personalities. It made colleagues grumpier, bossier and quickly became not a very fun place to work anymore.
I soon realised that I wasn’t doing anything with my life, as I had quit college and worked full time in a job that I didn’t have much chance of going much further with.

I was coming home from work unhappy, because of how stressful it had started to be so finally took the bull by the horns after one horrendous shift, and started to apply for other jobs.
I would have done anything to have a different job so had a huge spree of applying for any job out there, even though they seemed to go nowhere and I wouldn’t hear much back. I began to panic as I really didn’t want to be where I was anymore and felt trapped. My boyfriend who has an apprenticeship told me to try and apply for them, instead of full time/ part-time jobs. As I didn’t know much about them, I didn’t really listen at first, but soon found myself looking into them more and I eventually started looking for apprenticeships.

I found myself on ‘The Source Academy’ and before I knew it, I had applied for two apprenticeships and the following day, when at work, they had contacted me already in order to set up a interview with them. You go through the meeting with them first and they will decide what the best is for you and if you should go through to the next stage. The lady told me that ‘Lawson Thinking’ sounded more fitting for me, but I wasn’t too sure, so I decided that I would attend both meetings and have a think about them.

I had my two job interviews coming up for my apprenticeship and they were both on the same day with a few hours in-between. The first interview I had, was at a metal company which although went really well, I wasn’t sure on how I felt about it.
My second interview was here at Sum Studios with Lawson Thinking. As soon as I walked into the building, I knew instantly that this was more suited for me.
I got offered both positions and decided to take my apprenticeship with Lawson Thinking and have now been here since May and can happily say it’s the best choice I have ever made. I wasted no time in handing my notice in at work and starting to prepare myself for my new position here. I’m so happy that I was lucky enough to find a place to work that I enjoy so much. I get treated with respect and dignity and feel like I fit in perfectly, more than I have done anywhere else that I have been. To say that I was never that interested in an apprenticeship to now having one and loving it is amazing. I would recommend applying for one to anyone. You get paid whilst you learn new things and also get a qualification at the end.

One day, I hope to have my own business and learn new things everyday about what things go on in a business, what I would need to do to start my own business and so on. It has taken me a while to find somewhere I feel comfortable but now that I have, I couldn’t be happier and just wish I had done this whole process even sooner.

I had always thought that apprenticeships were for boys who were plumbers etc. but they have quickly become something for anyone and everyone.
According to the gov.uk website ‘More than a million women started apprenticeships between 2010 to 2011 and 2013 to 2014. The number of women starting an apprenticeship has also outstripped men by more than 130,000 since 2010. Over 1.1 million women have started apprenticeships since 2010 to 2011 compared to 972,000 men.’

For anyone who is in secondary school and thinking about what you are going to do beyond school, or who have just left school and are still not sure on what they want to do, if you haven’t already, I would seriously consider an apprenticeship. College and part time jobs aren’t for everyone, they certainly weren’t for me but now I’ve found the best place to work for me and it’s all about finding what is right for you.

I hope that this could help anyone who is struggling with their future or is unhappy in what they are doing at the moment, you should always make yourself happy, that is the most important thing.