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Original Article: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-apprenticeships-work-david-ross-nahrvar?trk=pulse_spock-articles

Today, I can make my company 10x their investment into this Apprenticeship program and myself. Annually.

I do apologize, the last 6 months have been very challenging and fast-paced. That being said, I do owe all of you an update to my previous article that explained the need for junior IT professionals and the place for apprenticeships in this industry today.

Not 6 days after publishing the Article, Entisys Solutions Inc. reached out to me directly and informed me they’ve been trying to start an apprenticeship-like program for years but have not found the right candidate to pilot the initiative. Then asked if I’d be interested in creating an Apprenticeship Program at the esteemed virtualization powerhouse, Entisys Solutions Inc.

Needless to say, I took a pay-cut and JUMPED at the opportunity.

This article is for both employers and for prospective IT Apprentices.

This Article can be taken as a general needs list for the ideal successful IT Apprenticeship program and working/learning environment. Though since Entisys Solutions Inc. is a Virtualization Powerhouse, this list would be VDI/datacenter virtualization-centric. Substitutions would be easy, but the concept is what’s important here.

The Arsenal:

From day one, I was given a list of high-end laptops to choose one from, a list of the specs for my Proliant ML310e server that was ordered to be used as a lab environment, an office, useful software I would need, and an IP Subnet to build into my lab domain.

The Targets:

A list of valid IT Industry Certifications was presented as milestones to achieve, and be used as performance counters including Critical Success Factors, with an embellished timeline to do it in (2 years). Milestones included Billable Managed Services Tickets, Project Engineering assignment, and Staff Augmentation readiness. All of which a dedicated apprentice should be able to reach within a 1 year time-frame.

The Team:

The high amount of technical and executive support makes failure completely optional and success a walk in the park. Provisioned to me is one Senior Guru Engineer/Consultant directly responsible for my professional growth and a literal slew of high-quality guru brains to pick apart in the professional services team.

The Plan:

Every Monday, the mentor and apprentice would meet to discuss the tasks assigned for the week, there would be a minimum of a research task, lab task, and presentation of findings task. Then, on every Friday the mentor would expect a presentation of every task given and the results of them, including what the apprentice has learned and their ability to teach others their newly-gained knowledge base. Every week includes studying for Industry Certifications from Citrix, VMware, and Microsoft. As well as learning the many different tools and management software that support the Infrastructure Engineers’ responsibilities.

Week 1: Enterprise Infrastructure Standards, Concepts, and Industry Needs

Week 2: LAB, Citrix XenDesktop 7.6 Environment on ESXi build-out

Week 3: Classroom, Virtualized Infrastructure Concepts and Solutions, LAB

Week 4: Classroom, Citrix CCA-N and CCA-V Exam Prep, LAB

Week 5: Citrix Synergy Conference, Orlando, Florida and CCP-N Certification

Week 6-9: Classroom, Citrix, Veeam, VMware, NVIDIA, Solidfire, Atlantis

Week 10-12: Deep-dive on Citrix XenDesktop 7.6 on both ESXi and Xen LAB

Week 13: Performance Review, Apprentice II compensation awarded

Week 14: LAB - Citrix PVS and MCS technologies

Week 15: Study Statement of Work and Design Doc of first assigned project

Week 16: First Official Project Kickoff - XenDesktop7.6 Implementation

Week 17-19: XD7.6 Project, as Engineer with a Solutions Architect shadowing me while I do the technical parts of the implementation project. This was a major milestone since the project went very well, the client is very happy with their new 300 user environment, and I’ve been of value to my company.

Currently: While the next Project is in the works, I’ve taken this time to continue to research and study the technical knowledge bases I feel I need to ramp up on (GPOs and Presentation to Non-Technicals). =) And at the same time being a beneficial technical resource to our Managed Services Division and integrating some cool new beta technologies into my Demo Center Lab. I’ve learned more in the last 5 months than I did in university.

Apprentice III Compensation awarded.

The Conclusion:

In 3 months, my company broke even with their investment in my employment as an apprentice. The program will continue to be profitable with the hard-work and technical know-how that their best Engineers and Consultants have trained and mentored me with.

Though this was never a short-term solution, with the right Motivated Apprentices, timelines and milestones will be crusted left and right if positively motivated.

The Drive and Motivation:

There are 2 critical motivations to be used in combination to ensure success. One form of motivation is tiered compensation plans that are awarded at particular milestones, Apprentice I, II, III works best at 42, 54, 68. The most effective motivation in combination with tiered compensation is the promise of a bright future in the vast world of Technology. From there the only significant change would be the transition from Apprentice to full time Engineer, those have geographic market rates.

Nothing has a more positive result than to know one is working towards something great, in this case it’s a great career, great future, great life.

If you’re willing to invest a little time and a little money, referring to both employer and apprentice, you can BUILD what you NEED.

Today, I can make my company 10x their investment into this Apprenticeship and myself, annually.

It is important for us to like, comment, and share to expand this concept to the world and educate our peers that…

Technology is the key to the future and Apprenticeships lead to Expertise.

Pay it forward.

Let’s starts a discussion about how we can improve upon the concept, I’m all ears and would love some constructive feedback OR stories of how you broke into the Industry. Ready Go!

7 Spice ups
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David, I wholeheartedly agree with you, but we took a slightly different tact. At my employer (a Fortune 300 10B company) we have internships during the summer months where applicants apply for various openings (this is open to high school and college kids alike).

In my Operations dept, we went from having 6 full time seasoned Operators to 2 seasoned Operators (2 were let go / 2 got promotions (myself included)). And we also hired 9 newbies in the last year, including 2 in the last 2 months. Most of these newbies are smart college grads. 2 were in their mid 30s and are no longer here due to seeking greener pastures.

The plan was to change what and how we monitored our NOC and have a lot of eyes and a few seasoned handlers to make it work.

These kids have drive and motivation and the ability to learn, key skills for success.

Our key has been careful screening by the manager. And buy in from upper management that the few bumps in the road at the beginning will be worth it in the end.

Good luck to you.

1 Spice up
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in a F300 company all of that works but smaller companies don’t get that. OP mentions getting his own ML310e and a high end laptop…

Also those deployments and all that is mentioned by the OP isn’t truly what’s needed in IT - you need soft skills. Tech skills can be learned as you go and need to be learned on your own. Hand holding should not be necessary. That being said, I kinda jumped in the pit and wrestled the wolves myself but I would not go thru the apprentice route.

1 Spice up
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Which is why if you want tech skills smaller companies are not always the best places, although some still have decent labs.

Our staff has access to a 3 VMhost lab (VSAN etc), a pair of 10Gbps Brocade VDX switches, various routers and firewalls (although these days everyone uses packet tracer) and all of the VMware partner training videos, and lab options they can do.

Another that smaller shops can at least do is allow for time off to go to continuous training. We send 3 people to VMworld this year (and I expect more next year). We have 3 people going to VMUG today (should be a good presentation).

We re-reimburse VCP classes.

none of this stuff is really all that expensive.

2 Spice ups
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I was very very very fortunate to peak the interest of a 100M company that focuses entirely as a Virtualization Oriented Solutions provider, reseller, and integrator. A ML310e is provisioned to all engineers and architects as it is an important part of the profession to test ideas and solutions in a controlled environment before presenting. High-end as in 256GB SSD, 16GB RAM, i7 HP. I chose Virtualization as my primary skill-set and followed the opportunities here.

Of course, small companies are not typically the place to find apprenticeships. Medium and large have the resources and need for more hands, specified roles, cheaper costs, and higher retention rates. From any business stand-point, having an apprentice working under a strong mentor can increase productivity. Whether its the menial tasks that bog down a senior or the projects that need to happen but can’t due to priority scheduling.

This is good, I’m forming the apprenticeship program here and completely agree that Executive Support and Proper Managerial Screening are the literal red or green lights.

One addition I wanted to add was testout.com they are like CBT Nuggest but much cheaper and very comprehensive, CompTIA, Microsoft, Linux, etc. I’ve been eyeing the MSITP MCSA MCSE courses that provide great training for noobs. To be utilized in concurrence with vendor/technology specific courses.

Remember that one person at the beginning of your career that helped you either directly or indirectly and showed you a few things you didn’t know? Whether you like it or not, you were in an apprenticeship even if it was a few moments, don’t be salty, pay it forward.