As part of this year’s National Apprenticeship Week, we are going to be profiling each of our current cohort over the next four days; providing you with an insight into who they are, why they applied for the scheme and what they hope to gain from it.

Today’s forth and final profile focuses on Josef Cole.

Tell us a little bit about your background…

I was born and raised in Croydon, South London, where I still live. Growing up, I was basically raised entirely on music! Whether it was watching MTV at home or listening to old Italian songs at my grandma’s house, it was something I was always immersed. As a result, as I got older, I found myself becoming more interested in live gigs and events.

At what age did you decide that you were interested in the ‘technical’ world?

I’d always had some interest in the technical, starting from when I was very little and seeing people working all the different lights in the school play. That said, my interest really started to peak during Sixth Form. In 2018, I studied Music Technology as an A-level as I wanted to learn more about music production and how songs were created in a studio. During my studies, I was asked to help out with certain live performances in order to learn more about sound mixing but also as an extra pair of hands to set everything up. I realised then how satisfying it is to actually set up a stage area and see how the various equipment all works in real time during a performance. It had a big impact on me; so much so that it was at this point I actually wanted to work more in live events.

How did you find out about the WL Apprenticeships?

I didn’t immediately start looking for jobs or apprenticeships within the live events industry as I’d actually considered doing a journalism degree after a gap year. That said, as soon as I’d found out about WL and read about their apprenticeship scheme, I knew that was where I wanted to go. I did consider a couple of other options but WL was the first place I applied to – and I’m glad I did!

What was the apprenticeship application process like?

The application process itself was fairly simple. It gave me a good chance to convey who I was and what I wanted to learn while I was there. The first visit was to WL itself was very informative as I was shown around all the departments and even given time to speak with people working there to understand what they do and how they do it. Every question I asked (and I did ask plenty!) each staff member was more than happy to answer. It really gave me confidence that the company had built a strong working environment.

How has the apprenticeship been so far?

The highlight of my apprenticeship so far was about two months ago. I had been working in the LED department where I’d helped prep a range of high-profile Christmas events. A couple of weeks later, someone I’d worked with on the job showed me some photos of the lights that we’d prepped and how they’d all come together on-site. It was really amazing to see the end result of our initial prep work and made me feel incredibly proud to have played a part in it.  

What do you hope the apprenticeship will offer you in the long-run?

In the long-run, I hope the apprenticeship will be able to offer me more opportunities to practice working on-site. What I’ve learnt in the warehouse has already taught me so much that can be applied in all areas of the company and I look forward to implementing this new skills on actual projects. Working at WL, even for the small amount of time I have been here, has been so eye opening and I would recommend that anyone wanting to train in the theatre and venue industry looks into an apprenticeship to broaden their skill set.

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