Hello I'm Neve!

Hi, I’m Neve and I’m the new Apprentice in the Junior Jam office where for the next year ill be learning on the job to complete my Level 3 Business Admin Apprenticeship. I’m coming towards the end of my third week here in the office however this is not where my Junior Jam experience started…

I have three older sisters and the eldest two were actually instructors at Junior Jam around 10 years ago when I was only 8/9 years old. I remember waiting to ask them questions about the sessions they taught that day and would look forward to listening to the funny stories they would tell about how their classes went. After little persuasion, I was finally enrolled into the holiday clubs where I turned up on the first day wearing a Junior Jam hoodie which I had sneakily taken from the clean washing pile and was so excited for my first day of the clubs. I vividly remember thinking “I wish I could come to these clubs every day!”

Fast forward to Summer 2019, I had made plans to go work at a Summer Camp in Virginia USA which has always been a dream of mine, however I had just left Sixth Form and felt I didn’t have enough experience working with kids to travel half way across the world to do so. Luckily, I saw an ad on Facebook which was advertising Junior Jam Holiday Club support in my area and I saw this as the perfect opportunity to gain the experience of working with children to be able to save up enough money to differ my USA Summer Camp offer to Summer 2020.

I spent 6 weeks going to different schools supporting the holiday clubs which included doing registers in a morning, making sure the kids lunches were delivered and any specific dietary requirements were met, supervising lunch times, observing lessons and helping to make sure everything ran smoothly and even sometimes getting to join in playing games of rounders etc (where I’m sure I enjoyed it as much, if not more than the kids!) I did the full 6 weeks Monday- Friday whilst working full weekends and some evenings at Starbucks which was my full time job since leaving Sixth Form, by doing this I was gaining as much experience as I could working with different people of all ages in different setting which I really enjoyed.

As COVID took the world by storm in March, it meant the US borders were shut making it impossible to go work at the Summer Camp. This put my plans at a halt, and I decided to apply for a more secure job, and thankfully at the end of my apprenticeship here I will leave with a new qualification. Since leaving sixth form, I have spent the last 3 years at Starbucks and although I LOVED my time there, I am so thankful to now be making coffees for the wonderful people in the office where I am so excited to continue my Junior Jam journey and see the ‘behind the scenes’ of the business.

-Neve