Gabe Stoneman

Gabe Stoneman from the school of life sciences completed our Crop Technician Apprenticeship. Hre are Gabe's thoughts on his apprenticeship experience:

"After my first year of sixth form I was looking for other options as I didn’t like sixth form and the apprenticeship came up on a website as an option.

My role is a horticultural technician working for University of Warwick, Stratford on Avon Innovation campus with the Horticultural Services Team. I help researchers undertake field and glasshouse, and polytunnel vegetable trials

The most challenging part of my role for me is doing monotonous jobs like seed cleaning and jobs that are fiddly and bud pollinating. I find fiddly jobs difficult to maintain concentration for lengthy periods.

I think my biggest achievement is switching from a school environment to a working environment. I thrive on practical applications.

The people who I work with are my inspiration as they are all knowledgeable and I am learning a lot from them. I am picking up their extensive skills with on job training. I am trying to learn and improve all the time to eventually be as good as them at tasks.

I would like to develop in my role here at University of Warwick and developing CPD within a practical horticultural environment.

My advice for anyone looking to complete an apprenticeship is, Do it! It is better than school. The experience gives you a lot of different ways to learn skills, gain confidence, and get involved with interesting things that you may not learn doing something else. You also get a lot of real-world experience of working which is good."