Tech-savvy siblings take different routes to specialist roles

They are both working in hi-tech jobs, but siblings Aisha and Awais Saeed couldn’t have taken more distinct routes towards their current roles.

While the sister and brother from Cardiff are both working towards their degree apprenticeships - organised through specialists at Network 75, which is based at the University of South Wales (USW) - their paths towards the jobs they now do were very different.

That’s because Aisha, 25, started on the road to her current position – a Robotic Process Automation (RPA) developer in the RPA team at Monmouthshire Building Society (MBS) – heading in a very different direction by focusing on business and management.

Now in the fifth and final year of her degree apprenticeship, Aisha says the grounding she got at the start of her course, organised by MBS in partnership with Network 75, helped her get an in-depth understanding of the organisation.

“I was initially doing what you might call a ‘generic’ kind of business and management degree, with the time at the building society seeing me move between different departments, such as mortgage services and savings, to get an understanding of many different parts of the organisation,” Aisha said.

“This was really useful as it taught me about the bread and butter of the business, and helped me get involved in some change projects in the continuous improvement team.

“Over the past three or four years that's developed and seen me get more involved in business change and working on different projects, one of which was the digital project for RPA – which is around supporting the Society’s goals becoming a modern mutual.”

For younger brother Awais, 20, involvement in the tech sector began earlier in his career than that of his sister.

An Information Security Engineer for Future Publishing - a global platform for specialist media - Awais was already employed by the company when he was able to apply to Network 75 Professional Academy to do his degree apprenticeship, and is now in the third year of a Digital and Technology Solutions (Cyber Security) degree at USW.

“I knew straight away after A-levels that I wanted to do a degree apprenticeship, rather than a traditional full-time degree, because I didn't want to have any student debt,” he said. “I wanted to start earning money, and that’s exactly what this has given to me.”

For Awais, there is a range of benefits to both working and studying part-time.

“When I am working, I really enjoy that and work with great people,” he said. “But you’ve also got the education side, which can give you a break and something else to focus on, and you can also make different connections at uni.

“So it's a nice kind of halfway house, where you get the good parts of uni, you still get your degree, you're getting everything paid for, and then in work you're getting your salary and building a good relationship with your colleagues - it's quite a nice mix.”

Looking to the future, both Aisha and Awais are aiming to further develop their technical knowhow as their careers continue to evolve.

“I think I definitely want to stay in information security, but I'm definitely going to draw on the things that I learn in the rest of my degree,” Awais said.

“The degree is quite broad – offering understanding of programming, computer security, and other things such as ethical hacking - so it may be that once I finish my degree something might pique my interest, but I think I definitely want to stay within the realms of information and cybersecurity.”

“I kind of feel the same way,” Aisha said. “The change management experience has been great, and now, having moved into this digital space and having picked up technology skills – which aren’t related to my degree or my business/humanities background - I have found that I really enjoy being a developer in the robotics and AI space.

“The work experience I have had while studying is all going to help me towards pursuing a career in that type of role.”

Having benefited from the Network 75 concept, would the siblings encourage others to follow suit?

“I've had a really great breadth of experience at the company and I'll always appreciate them giving me those opportunities, because I think it's really enriched what otherwise would have been a quite general business and management degree,” Aisha said.

“With the building society having a dedicated person in the HR team who looks after us on Network 75, I've always felt supported when doing my degree apprenticeship. I've got a lot out of the five years.”

While Awais added. “I think Network 75 has got a really good balance. You always feel like you are supported as a student and as an employee of a company, and, if you have any questions, they are always there to offer advice.”

Network75 is a combined work placement and part-time study route to a degree. Network75 Trainees are able to apply their academic knowledge to real-life work within their host company, gaining the necessary skills, experience, and qualifications that are highly sought after by industry.