I was recently invited to a very special event, at Microsoft's head office in Reading, Berkshire, where teenagers from the Thames Valley were 'graduating' from a traineeship programme, at a celebration ceremony. 

The young people at the event had either been plucked out of their bedrooms, from being unemployed, or had decided that working in retail, or other jobs weren't suitable for them, so they applied for a traineeship instead. Having heard about the traineeships scheme - they unexpectedly found themselves being given a second chance and given help to kick-off a career in technology. They were provided with a structured training programme by QA, funded by government, and work experience at Microsoft's office, in Berkshire, as part of QA's traineeship scheme. 

At the event I heard stories from teenagers explaining how this scheme had transformed their lives, in just 12-weeks. The group of young adults, seemingly confident, impressively presented their stories in front of an auditorium of Microsoft employees, and their friends and families. They talked about how they had started off with no self-confidence, in some case they were unable to communicate with others, even within their peer group, and had little direction in life.

The traineeship had transformed them into confident young adults, with direction, and a hugely positive attitude about their lives and what they were capable of - more so than I had when I was in my twenties, having been to University for three years.

Through meeting professionals within the tech industry, at Microsoft, and being taken seriously by people in the working world, is such a brilliant scheme for young people, who are just starting out, and especially for those who got low GCSE grades and never imagined that they would ever get to work at a tech giant, such as Microsoft. 

Following the completion of the traineeship - the ambition of many of the young people at the event was to get into a tech based apprenticeship - which they are now eligible to apply for. If they hadn't taken the traineeship they may not have been eligible to do the apprenticeship because their GCSE grades may not have been high enough.

QA's traineeship is a stepping-stone to doing an apprenticeship, which they could do within any organisation wishing to hire a digital or tech apprentice. The QA Apprenticeship programme provides candidates with a salary, whilst working and studying at the same time. The training is either funded by government, or their employer, which means that the young people do not have to pay for the training and, therefore, do not end up in any daunting debt. 

I had a chat with an apprentice, called Hussain Gulfraz, who had taken the traineeship with Microsoft and QA, and was then taken on as an apprentice at a local company doing web design. He said:

"The traineeship with QA and Microsoft has allowed me to progress onto an apprenticeship, meaning that I now have a job in the area at a web design agency, doing front-end development work. I get paid a salary and study at the same time.I would not be doing what I am doing now without the traineeship opportunity, because I didn't get the GCSE grades that I wanted - so didn't think I would be able to start a career in anything that I wanted to do.Before I was enrolled on the traineeship, I was still in employment but working in retail. I never expected to be where I am now 1 year after taking the traineeship".