Apprenticeships are the perfect way to upskill because they are designed to work around your current commitments by blending live workshops with self-paced e-learning. Our newest programme – Level 6 AI Engineer – was developed to equip teams with the advanced skills needed to operationalise, build, and deploy production-ready AI systems.
We want to ensure all our learners are fully prepared to get the most from the programme. If you’re thinking of upskilling to become an AI Engineer, take a look at our 8 tips to ensure your apprenticeship gets off to the best start:
1. Get yourself organised
Most of our learners study alongside their current work and family commitments. Make sure to familiarise yourself with the course and curriculum before enrolling, so you know what’s expected and can start planning your time accordingly.
The Cambridge Spark AI Engineer Apprenticeship (L6) runs for 15 months plus the end-point assessment. During this time you’ll do a minimum of 6 hours per week off-the-job training – learning that is undertaken outside of the day-to-day work duties and during your normal working hours.
2. Don't forget your downtime
Scientific research has shown there is an optimal point of learning, which means overworking is detrimental to your academic performance. Be sure to balance work/study with regular downtime. Exercise is ideal, because it causes the brain to emit a neurotransmitter known as GABA, which has a calming effect and reduces anxiety. Don’t worry if you don’t fancy hitting the gym, walking the dog or cleaning the kitchen are also good ways to get your blood pumping.
3. Set expectations
It’s important that your line manager remains fully supportive throughout the duration of your apprenticeship. For example, on the Level 6 AI Engineer Apprenticeship, we expect your manager to ensure you have planned off-the-job training hours and work on their project portfolio. Additionally, we encourage managers to have regular one-to-one meetings to catch up on your progress, as well as join you and your coach for 30 minutes every 3-4 months for a general catch up.
4. Use resources wisely
There are numerous resources available to support you in your studies - from apps that help to transcribe your ideas, schedule your time and summarise research, to content repositories with the latest insights. The following are some resources our team find most useful:
Hosted by our very own Dr Raoul-Gabriel Urma, this podcast is your source for cutting-edge insights, practical advice, and inspiring stories from the UK’s leading voices in data and AI.
A free distribution service and an open-access archive for nearly 2.4 million scholarly articles in the fields of physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, statistics, electrical engineering and systems science, and economics.
A free and open resource with machine learning papers, code, datasets, methods and evaluation tables.
A platform where the machine learning community collaborates on models, datasets, and applications.
Summarise any piece of text into concise, easy to digest content so you can free yourself from information overload.
A personalised virtual research assistant that uses AI to generate summaries, explanations and answers based on uploaded content.
A personal knowledge base and note-taking software application that helps users organise and structure their thoughts and knowledge in a flexible, non-linear way.
5. Know what help is at hand
While on the AI Engineer Apprenticeship you will always receive best-in-class support. Lectures and workshops are facilitated by our expert trainers and technical mentors, who are drawn from top universities and leading data-driven organisations for their expertise. And we regularly invite guest speakers to give you greater exposure to the best minds in the field.
Additionally, you will have access to professionally trained coaches and technical mentors to ensure maximum ROI and skills application in the workplace. Learners will also gain access to our knowledge base, ticket service, and peer learning via our community of 4,000+ current learners and alumni.
6. Demonstrate critical thinking
Our learners achieve a 99.5% pass rate with 70%+ distinction/merit grades, compared to an industry average of just 33%. They’re awarded the top marks because they demonstrate critical thinking.
The beauty of an apprenticeship is that you study alongside your job, which means you can immediately put your new skills and ideas into practice. Additionally, by learning alongside your peers, you can gain perspectives from different industries, sectors and types of organisations. During your assignments, you should use these insights to show you’ve examined a range of theories and real-life applications, and explain why something does/doesn’t work - or how it might need to be adapted to become fit for purpose. Alternatively, you could apply the learnings from one sector, like healthcare, and hypothesise for a similar sector, like social care. Here, you should be clear about what assumptions you’ve made and why, and the scope of what you’re trying to achieve.
A good ‘rule of thumb’ is to:
- Identify a problem/opportunity.
- Perform research to understand and consider different perspectives on how to approach it.
- Determine the relevance of the data gathered to ensure information is timely and accurate.
- Ask questions to challenge your assumptions and eliminate (potential) bias.
- Identify a solution by showing the correlation between cause and effect.
- Analyse its effectiveness, state lessons learned and share recommendations for improvement.
7. Bring your studies to life
While you will be taught different models, frameworks and academic theories within the context of real case studies, nothing compares to trying it out in practice. Therefore, as one of our AI engineer apprentices, you will be granted access to our online learning platform, EDUKATE.AI.
Designed to accelerate learning outcomes, the platform allows you to practice your new skills in a sandbox environment using real datasets. It doesn’t matter when you choose to practice because you’ll receive instant feedback 24/7 on your code.
If you’ve not used EDUKATE.AI, you can find out more about it here. Or if you want to make sure you’re getting the most out of the platform, speak to a member of our team, who will be happy to provide additional support.
8. Embrace the community
The ability to look at how different organisations are taking advantage of AI engineering skills, is a real eye-opener because you learn about the true business impact from real life projects.
But it’s not just academic learning you get in our community, it’s personal support. Access to our community is restricted to current or past learners, which means everyone either is, or has been, in the position of balancing assignments with work commitments. If you find yourself struggling, you’ll find a support network within the community – and when you want to celebrate the ‘wins’, they’ll know how good that feeling of accomplishment is.
And don’t forget, it’s also networking, which is great for your future career prospects.
“A clear benefit of this program are the opportunities to network with Cambridge Spark partners and alumni which include impressive companies like the NHS and the BBC.”
Preeti Maurya, Credit Risk Analyst, NewDay
Get your apprenticeship off to the best start
With Cambridge Spark's AI Engineer Apprenticeship (L6) you now have a new path to AI expertise - one that delivers real-world skills to create the next generation of talent.
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Enquire now
Fill out the following form and we’ll contact you within one business day to discuss and answer any questions you have about the programme. We look forward to speaking with you.
