Meet Thomas Peacock, Northern Skills Recruitment Consultant
Before becoming an apprentice with Northern Skills, Thomas attended Hartlepool Sixth Form College, with aspirations to go into Business or Law. After realising he preferred hands-on work-based learning, Thomas started his search for an apprenticeship.
Thomas tells us: “Before starting my role at Northern Skills, I attended Hartlepool Sixth form college as I wanted to study Law and Business and aimed to forge a career based on one of those things. The eventual goal was to go to university to study Business Management however, I quickly realised that as a person I needed to be in the working world, so I started to investigate apprenticeships. Coming from a family that has always taught me to work hard and earn a living I knew that is what I needed to do, and I think I got that a lot from my dad.
“Initially, I contacted Northern Skills regarding a vacancy they had at a law firm as I knew an apprenticeship in Business Admin would help me gain skills in an office environment. I had an interest in Law already, however that wasn’t to be due to travel issues getting to and from the workplace. I then received a bulleting from Northern Skills advertising a position within their own recruitment team, and even though it was a long travel from home I knew it was the job for me.”
After wowing the Northern Skills team, and even gaining Apprentice Of The Year 2021, Thomas was kept on for a 2nd apprenticeship and was then offered a full-time role within the team.
Thomas goes on to say: “In my 3 and a half years at the College my role has changed a lot. I started off as an Admin Apprentice and gradually started increasing my duties within that to become what we called a co-ordinator. A co-ordinator which is someone who deals with the entire candidate side before they have an interview. I then got a permanent position around 6 months into my second apprenticeship to become a recruitment consultant where I have recruited for many sectors, but mainly focus on construction and motor vehicle.
“My favourite thing about working within Middlesbrough College Group is that I get a chance to work with both internal and external from different backgrounds, finding out about how they got to where they are today. I love the team I am a part of as everyone is so supportive, and we all get on really well.”
Thomas now plays an integral part of the apprenticeship recruitment team, matching applicants to the perfect apprenticeship role for their career progression and ensuring employers have a great team fit to help support their business needs.
Thomas says: “I love that I can help students and candidates kickstart their career, I am playing a small step in the start of someone’s working life, but I feel proud to be supporting them in their journey.
“For anyone considering applying for a role within Middlesbrough Colle Group, I would say go for it 100%! The College is great and everyone I have dealt with has been so good, we are supported constantly and allowed to thrive.
“When I am not at work everything else is football, I’m either at the football, playing football, watching football, or watching shows/podcast about football. I think it is a little bit of an obsession.”
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