Camelot, operator of The National Lottery – Never give up on your long term career goals

Mikey is several months into a secondment within National Lottery operator Camelot which has seen him move from a contact centre retail sales team role to Instants Executive within the games team.

Mikey joined Camelot four years ago and is now studying for a Level 3 Step into Management apprenticeship, to help him achieve a longer term goal of moving into a management position.

“I saw the role advertised about six months before the start of the pandemic, but because of the pandemic it was bad timing to change role and in truth I wasn’t ready for it.  Fast forward to the end of the pandemic and I applied again and with the help and support of my managers I was offered the role, so it was actually quite an easy process which was a relief.”

“Camelot is good at sharing information about internal jobs and they also did a presentation about the apprenticeship scheme and the opportunity to move role and upskill.”

Mikey’s route into work was into a shop floor role at Tesco after studying at college. “A levels weren’t for me and while at college I decided to also resit my English and Maths GCSEs to improve on my grades as I knew I would need them in the future.”

Mikey stayed with Tesco for 10 years and had hoped to apply for their internal management scheme, but unfortunately he was overlooked. “While I worked in store I learned a lot of different skills and also a lot about point of sale, opening up the internal phone shop I helped run and working with customers.”

“When I came to Camelot I thought I would have to learn everything again, but it was easy to move to as they give you a lot more help and support.”

Mikey’s day to day role involves putting the new game licences together, working with suppliers and internally working with a number of departments on the games as it progresses through the different product phases before going on sale. Typically, he will be working on two to three games at any one time.

Mikey spends 20% of his working week on the apprenticeship training and his 18 month course is due to finish later this year. “It’s been really interesting so far and has helped me to learn a number of new skills to help prepare me to move into a management role in the future. When a management role comes up in the future I will now have the confidence to say I can do this and apply for it. I know I’ve got the skills and behaviours to apply to move the next level.”

Mikey hasn’t ruled out further apprenticeship training to help him upskill further. His advice to others who have the opportunity to upskill via the apprenticeship scheme is: “If you want to make a change to your career then go for it, as you will always learn something new from this and it will give you the opportunity to progress. But make sure you don’t fall behind on the learning even if you are busy in your job. You have to schedule in the hours to keep up and get the most out of it. You must be organised. Luckily for me I’m a fast learner and I’ve been picking it up really quickly.”