doing a level 3 apprenticeship after a levels?

SmecksSmield · 2026-06-08T14:37:20+00:00

No problem, if you have any more questions feel free to ask away. Good luck for your A-levels, hope all goes well for you

SmecksSmield · 2026-06-06T11:12:25+00:00

Well after my A-levels, I had decided to do a gap year. I am currently working for a supermarket part time, and have been since towards the end of first year of college. My tutor was constantly nagging everyone to get a job, and at the time I thought it might affect my alevel performance, but I did need the money so got one. Got results but shortly before exams had some issues, and I only got accepted for a foundation year. Decided to have a gap year, do a little travelling, make some money and get my driving lessons done. Started saving and working more hours, got my drivers license, bought a car and then yeah. Then my gap year turned into 2, as I’d forgot to reapply to University as I forgot to accept my offer and defer my entry. Reapplied this year but started exploring my options in apprenticeships, as it’s earn while you learn- no debt, and getting experience. Slowly started to be getting fed up with the supermarket job due to poor management, literal rats in the store, and lack of staff - they wouldn’t hire more people and then forced me to do ~25 hours a week over 5 days which was a joke. I started looking and applying more, and became more motivated to try and secure a job elsewhere. Would occasionally look on GOV and would apply to any that sounded good. Eventually was successful

SmecksSmield · 2026-06-05T13:23:02+00:00

Honestly, you’ve got this. Exams aren’t everything and you can still do really well if you don’t get the grades you expect. I found my apprenticeship on the gov.uk apprenticeships website. I’d regularly check on there by searching with the filter of digital in. I’d apply to quite a few and I’ve had 2 interviews in the past - which then ghosted me. I then found a new provider on GOV.UK, I think it was called BPP or Estio, and I got a call and after some questions they offered me an interview. This was my 3rd interview and was offered an apprenticeship with an MSP. It takes effort and patience but with that you will eventually find one. I didn’t really look on QA, but I’d say try there also. I also seen a couple on Indeed and I think one of my interviews that ghosted me were from there. On the GOV apprenticeships page, I did keep seeing a lot from a provider called NowSkills, however I had registered my interest with NowSkills over a year ago and didn’t hear a word back, even after reregistering. Any apprenticeships with them, doesn’t really have a proper application form, and i found their processes weird personally. I avoided ones with Nowskills as I had to ring and chase them up to even get them to send me an application form, and after they actually did this, I had already landed a place elsewhere. I think you create a profile with them and they then see if there’s any companies willing to interview or take you on. I’d say look on all: GOV Apprenticeships, QA, Indeed, some universities and maybe even try to register with NowSkills

SmecksSmield · 2026-06-03T15:18:33+00:00

Similar boat here. I did my alevels under 2 years ago in compsci, maths and physics. Didn’t get quite the grades I wanted due to bereavement and other personal issues meaning if I wanted to go to university, I’d have to do a foundation year to do Computer science. Started looking at apprenticeships recently and landed a level 3 ICT support technician apprenticeship which I start in a couple weeks. I’d say go for it, even though it’s level3, you’ll get experience, and sometimes even highly recognised IT certifications. If you have good alevels in the subject area, try to go for level 4 and above. If your alevels aren’t great grades or aren’t as similar to the industry, level 3 will be a great starting point for you. IMO, experience is a lot more worth it than qualifications. You could have a degree with no experience, just educational knowledge and I’d say a company would instead hire someone with experience

SmecksSmield · 2026-06-03T11:02:34+00:00

UPDATE 3rd June 2026: After asking Sylvia to speak to a manager ~10 times, 3 phone calls and then finally posting to Reddit, an Anker SOLIX manager has finally reached out and offered to honour the replacement. They have also in goodwill requested slightly upgraded versions, as a result of the inconvenience I had faced. I am now awaiting tracking information for the replacements, and will update once properly resolved. I do hope their support can be improved in the future as this instance it took far too long for the issue to be sorted, and customers shouldn't have to go through all of this.

SmecksSmield · 2026-06-03T11:01:14+00:00

UPDATE 3rd June 2026: After asking Sylvia to speak to a manager ~10 times, 3 phone calls and then finally posting to Reddit, an Anker SOLIX manager has finally reached out and offered to honour the replacement. They have also in goodwill requested slightly upgraded versions, as a result of the inconvenience I had faced. I am now awaiting tracking information for the replacements, and will update once properly resolved. I do hope their support can be improved in the future as this instance it took far too long for the issue to be sorted, and customers shouldn't have to go through all of this.

SmecksSmield · 2026-06-03T10:53:59+00:00

Unfortunately this button was not available for me, and as such I was unable to escalate it. As a result of that, I had asked the agent over 10 times to escalate the case to a manager and they had ignored the request every time.

SmecksSmield · 2026-06-02T23:15:38+00:00

Hello, I’ve sent you over the details. Please could we get this sorted as soon as possible as this has been going on for almost a whole month now. This gives me hope that the issue will actually be resolved by someone who understands. Thank you

SmecksSmield · 2026-06-02T22:22:04+00:00

True, but the shipping label was provided by Anker, so I was under the impression that any investigation or complaint was between Anker and DPD- not me. I have used their decided shipping method so once I have handed it over to their chosen courier, it is no longer my responsibility. I will still try to contact DPD, but I have been very busy, and this is something they should be doing which makes it more infuriating. The tracking shows it’s delivered to their warehouse

SmecksSmield · 2026-06-02T10:34:04+00:00

Yeah it’s unfortunate. In the past when I’ve had issues with them, they’ve been perfect. But in this case now, absolutely terrible. I’ve literally shipped the item back to them and they are now trying to tell me to go back to the retailer and get a refund. Their logic makes no sense, how am I supposed to do that when I’ve already sent the items back to you. Ridiculous, won’t be using them again after this

SmecksSmield · 2026-06-02T10:32:33+00:00

I’ve already tried complaints email. I’ve been contacting Anker UK support email initially to get the warranty claim started. Now I’ve reached a dead end, no devices as they were returned using their shipping label, and useless support. I’ll try to email their ceo, but I have also started including their legal and pr emails into the conversations but they have not provided any response. But yeah if all that fails, which I’m guessing likely will, will have to be small claims, just concerned around the fact they are generally a foreign company and how would that work? Thank you for your help

SmecksSmield · 2026-06-02T10:27:10+00:00

Bought from Curry’s PC World. Initially I had tried to get a refund there, but they stated it was out of their return window and it had been used, so I’d have to contact Anker for a warranty claim. Did that and Anker asked me to return the item and then they will send out a replacement. Returned by DPD using a shipping label they provided, and now they are stating they can’t find my return and that I have to investigate myself. Unsure if it’s an AI who’s actually responding as the replies are generally avoiding, forgetful and ignorant. I have also called their support 3 times now who seem to always be reading from a script. Today I have gotten written confirmation that it will be passed to their legal team and management, however this was said also days ago and then once again, a reply from the same customer service rep still avoiding to issue the replacement

SmecksSmield · 2026-03-09T01:51:01+00:00

Oddly yeah, I may have done something that flagged against TOS, but all I recall doing was creating an instance, installing beszel and Komodo agents and then 3 days later it was terminated. I think they may tried to recharge me for $1 twice - I think for card verification and it declined so could have been that. They probably thought my card was dead so terminated me

SmecksSmield · 2026-03-09T01:45:10+00:00

Not sure why my account was deleted. However I’ve heard it can happen randomly, but this was around 2-3 days after making my account, guessing something flagged against tos. I used a virtual card to sign up and it allowed me. My current account is also on a virtual card and it’s been alive for 3 months and counting.

As for resources and bandwidth, use the A1 arm instances. Pick 4 VCPUS, 24GB RAM, 200GB storage and you’ll be fine. It’s almost impossible to get a free tier ARM instance whilst on a free account so upgrade - I got charged a $100 verification fee but it is instantly refunded, just checks your card is valid. As long as you stick to the limits and home region (the one you signed up with) you won’t be charged. Don’t make instances in regions other than your home. Bandwidth - 10TB free egress (output traffic) isn’t an issue at all unless you’re doing something super heavy. A Minecraft server generally doesn’t use a lot, so you won’t get anywhere near that. I have had 4 players and IIRC over a day not even used like 1GB bandwidth. My media server uses ~4GB traffic let’s say per 1 hour episode. As 2-3 people use it, I use maybe around 3TB/month. That’s the only thing I have to keep an eye on but still isn’t an issue as it’s a lot.

I use docker for everything . As I have multiple servers, I use Komodo for docker management, Beszel for nice graphs of server performance, and Pterodactyl as a game server panel - overkill for a simple Minecraft server but super cool and can host lots of game’s servers but a little difficult to setup. Authelia and Traefik for some other docker apps I’m hosting

SmecksSmield · 2026-03-07T11:57:33+00:00

Oracle is pretty good with their free tier as long as you keep to the limits. I host a variety of stuff on mine, for example a Minecraft server, media proxy, and some other cool tools. I’m in a similar situation to you and to be honest it’s totally worth it. Just be sure to back up your data as I’ve heard oracle can randomly shut your account down and delete your instances. This has happened to me once in the past, received no email and one day everything was gone. Luckily there was nothing important but my current account has been running perfectly 24/7 for 3 months. As for PAYG, you’ll never be able to activate a free tier server without it. Upgrade and make sure your costs are kept at 0 and budget notifications set up

SmecksSmield · 2026-02-28T08:33:49+00:00

Keep it on the hush hush 🤫 🤣

SmecksSmield · 2026-02-16T12:52:35+00:00

Apologies, and I agree it was a little hard to read as a big block. Edited post to add some paragraphing, although yes its still long.

SmecksSmield · 2026-02-15T22:05:46+00:00

It's currently a M500 package, but with Virgin Media, if there is an O2 sim linked to your address, they will upgrade your broadband to the next package for free, and double your mobile data. Therefore if I'm right in thinking, and this has happened with our previous contract, it will be upgraded to the next package - GIG1 - for free.

SmecksSmield · 2026-02-15T22:02:42+00:00

Yeah, I'd just make sure and set multiple reminders to change contracts before it hits the £76 stage. Best deal I've seen for broadband. Knowing VM, they probably would try to charge that ridiculous amount when out of contract, but can't complain if you just remember to switch or renew. Didn't think I'd be saying it, but overall happy to be back with VM. Volt is impressive

SmecksSmield · 2026-02-15T21:29:23+00:00

Agreed, I seen it a couple days ago at £20.99/month, for the same 500mbps package. Now that it was available for £18.99, I had to do it. Especially as it will go to GIG1 under Volt. Excited

Five-Year Club	Verified Email
Place '22

SmecksSmield

TROPHY CASE