The case for supporting early careers
At our All Hands earlier this month I shared some reflections on the past nine months of supporting a PMO Graduate Apprentice. The conversation that followed was warmer and longer than I'd anticipated. People wanted to engage about it afterwards, ask questions, share their own experiences of being given a chance early on. So, I thought I’d widen the audience and share here, both as a record of what happened and as a case for why we should keep doing this.
In September 2025 we welcomed Alexandria Nevobasi, a Graduate Apprentice, into the PMO for a nine-month placement. She had completed a one-week taster placement with us earlier in the year and arrived ready to learn, without much in the way of fixed expectations. Nine months later she has moved on to study Architectural Engineering at Heriot-Watt University, with an SCQF Level 6 Diploma in Digital Applications Support, a body of real professional work behind her, and the kind of confidence that only comes from being trusted to do that work.
What ‘real work’ means
I think it’s important to be clear about what we mean when we talk about apprenticeships. Our apprentice wasn’t sitting in the corner, shadowing, watching people do the work. Over nine months she contributed to more than fifteen live projects, spanning NHS, National Records of Scotland, Scottish Government, Transport Scotland, Historic Environment Scotland and others. She created project documentation, maintained budget trackers, kept reporting up to date, facilitated meetings and managed actions across multiple projects. In many respects, she was doing the same kind of work as the rest of the PMO. She even completed an internal SharePoint project independently that had long been on our internal list of improvements.
The difference was that we recognised she was there to learn as well as contribute. She was an active member of the PMO team, where we built in the time and the structure for her to learn while she contributed, all in a safe, supportive environment.
Confidence comes from doing real work, not just watching it happen. That’s why investing in early careers matters. When we give young people the opportunity to contribute, learn and be part of a team, they develop skills and confidence that will stay with them for the rest of their careers.
It took the whole business
One of the things she said at the end of her placement, which stayed with me, was that the support came from across the business and not just from the PMO. That observation is worth dwelling on.
Her PMO mentors gave detailed feedback on the structure, quality and consistency of her work. They provided opportunities for her to lead retros and kick-offs rather than just observe them. Our Operations Director designed a three-month onboarding programme covering Microsoft 365, SharePoint, OneDrive and Copilot, so she had a proper foundation in some of the tools we use every day. The Client Partner team brought her into real commercial work, including support and hosting agreements with live clients, giving her a clear view of what delivery looks like beyond the PMO.
That breadth of experience is important. An apprentice who only ever sees one corner of the business gets a narrow view of what is possible. An apprentice who is introduced to the whole shape of the company leaves with something much closer to a working understanding of how a consultancy like ours runs.
Why we should keep doing this
There is a case to be made on principle, and a case to be made on numbers, and both stand up.
The principle is straightforward. Storm ID has always talked about growth, curiosity and collaboration. Early careers is what those words look like when they are put into practice. If we believe in those values, this is one of the most visible ways to live them.
The numbers are worth knowing too. Eighty-six per cent of UK employers say apprenticeships have helped develop skills across their wider organisation. Seventy-eight per cent report measurable productivity gains. Apprentices who are properly invested in tend to stay, which reduces future recruitment costs and grows the next generation of leaders from within. And taking on a school leaver in Scotland contributes directly to closing a skills gap that affects all of us.
The bit that is harder to quantify is what mentors get out of it. Explaining what you do, breaking down a process you have been running on autopilot for years, answering the question “why do we do it this way?”, all of this sharpens your own practice. Several of our project managers have told me they have thought about their work differently because of those conversations.
What I’m taking from this
The thing that astounded me most was how quickly an apprentice goes from supporting the work to fully contributing to it. We are talking weeks, not months. The capability is there. What we provide is the context, the trust and the structure for that capability to land.
If you are reading this from another consultancy and wondering whether it is worth doing, I would say yes, and I would say start with the framework first. Decide who is going to mentor, what onboarding looks like, and which projects are appropriate to bring someone into. Get that right and the rest follows.
The more of us who take early careers seriously, the better the start in working life for the generation coming up behind us.