If you’ve read our article on Standard Bank Learnership Programme, chances are you may be interested in applying for a learnership as well. Unfortunately, learnerships aren’t always sunshine and rainbows. As a learner, there are some hurdles you might experience during the learnership.
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Some of these challenges come from within, while others involve external factors. To get the best out of your learnership, you should know how to get to the root of the problem. If you fail to do so, you will obtain less than you deserve.
So, what hurdles might you experience during the learnership? Here’s the list.
1. You are not motivated to complete the program
The main reason you lack the motivation to complete your learnership is that you perceive it as a job and a burden. Additionally, you will have a hard time following the program if you think what you are doing is useless.
In fact, you should think of it as an opportunity to experience something fresh and learn new abilities. Because basically, life is all about learning. And, by joining the programme, you have the opportunity to learn something in another way.
Solution: One of the best ways to motivate yourself to study hard is to be very clear about your goals. In other words, ask yourself why you wanted to earn a learnership in the first place. Then, make a list of the reasons you want to do well. Put the list in a place where you can see it. So when you’re feeling low, reread the list.
2. You don’t get access to good leadership support
How much you earn from your learnership depends largely on your mentor and the host employer. Therefore, if they take you seriously and provide you with resources to learn from, your learnership can be very productive.
Nevertheless, on the contrary, if they don’t provide good leadership support, that will be one of the other hurdles you might experience during your learnership.
Solution: If your mentor and superior is not very much into sharing knowledge, you may need to extract it from them yourself. First, make a list of the questions you have about what you learned. Then, ask them in one go. This is because bothering them frequently can also affect their attitude towards you. Yet, if this doesn’t work either, you’d better ask the relevant authorities for a new mentor.
3. You don’t have enough time to practice on the side
While you are undergoing the program, it is not impossible if you do not have enough time to practice what you have learned on the side. In fact, some learnership requires you to be actively involved for at least 45 hours per week, as reported from Keep Climbing.
Alternatively, it is nine hours of learnership per day if you work five days a week. If you are motivated enough, you will certainly take the best of your time to review what you learned over the weekend. Unfortunately, not all learners are born equal.
In fact, by practising regularly, you can strengthen your memory and speed up the process of absorbing new information.
Solution: Start by trimming your schedule a little. Most importantly, pay attention to areas of your schedule where you tend to spend too much time. For example, you may be spending too much of your free time on entertainment purposes. However, you don’t need to cut out all of these activities unless you think they are doing more harm than good. In short, try to be more mindful and reduce the things that may not be contributing to your progress.
4. You fear failure
For many learners, the fear of failure weighs heavily on their minds. In fact, this is one of the most common reasons that hinder their success. And, unless you overcome this fear, it can be difficult to achieve your goals.
Solution: Remember not to let your fear of failure become a significant issue. Instead, use positive learning to resolve any doubts you may have about not being successful in achieving your goals and earning satisfying learnership outcomes.
5. You fear success
You may think that this is a strange challenge, but it is real. Actually, you might experience this hurdle during your learnership especially if you have had an unhealthy relationship with success.
Perhaps, you have had a traumatic experience with it. Furthermore, you may have been the subject of verbal abuse when you were growing up. As a result, you have often heard that you were a loser your whole life.
However, similar conditions can also happen to other people who are not victims of verbal abuse. For instance, they simply dislike success because of the concept’s close association with competition and jealousy.
Solution: Stay away from negative people. That way, you will reduce the amount of negativity in your life. Then, practice daily gratitude and note the positive events that take place during your learnership. Eventually, you will notice how your negative attitude toward success is starting to melt away.
6. You are prone to stress
One of the hurdles with learning new skills is the fact that you will encounter new people and new experiences that trigger much of the stress you have about being a newcomer.
In fact, this is not a strange thing. Not being able to like your learnership right away is not a mistake. Instead, it is part of being human.
Solution: For this reason, you need to go with the right mind-set. People tend to approach a new skill in one of two ways: Some go in wanting to learn it, while others go in wanting to master it. It seems like a subtle difference, but it matters. Hence, going in with the humility of the learning approach allows you to enjoy yourself even as you’re floundering. After all, it’s just part of the process. Yet, gunning for mastery sets you up for failure pretty quickly.
7. You have low basic skills
Although you apply for a learnership to expand your skillset, that doesn’t mean that you have to go empty-handed. In fact, some programs require you to have basic skills to operate certain tools.
For example, to take learnership for an aspiring plumber, you should at least be able to apply adhesives, sealants, and caulk. To make things easier, you are required to understand these terms. If you fail to recognize it, you will be left behind.
Solution: Prepare yourself well before applying for any learnership programme. For that purpose, you can read the experiences of previous learners. From there, you will find out valuable information that you may not be able to get from anywhere.
8. You have trouble finding a suitable host employer
Finding a suitable host employer is a great challenge for many learners. In fact, finding an employer where there is scope for future employment is important. Moreover, they knock on many doors to offer their services.
Solution: If you demand some real mentorship, create an accountability plan with your host employer. However, if they are hesitant, then it’s up to you to decide if the company is worth your time and energy. It’s best to look for a better one since a host employer is supposed to be helpful.
9. You lose direction about the goal you originally set
In fact, we need direction in life to guide us through challenges and moments of transition, providing mental resilience and adherence to productive actions.
And lacking a sense of direction is risky because it creates a mental vulnerability during times of transition. Losing direction means losing hope.
Also, losing a sense of direction makes it feel like nothing matters. Thus, this nihilistic state of mind can allow you to rationalize reckless behaviour to fill the void of purposelessness during your learnership.
Solution: The easiest way to get lost is by blending in. Hence, if you’re not actively coming back to yourself, to who you really are, in all of your desires and quirks and dreams and traits, the right opportunities and people you meet in the learnership can’t find you. Therefore, you need to figure out the highest expression of yourself. And if you can, magnify those things.
10. Your learnership is at risk of being terminated at any time
A learnership can be terminated under certain circumstances. Particularly, according to SAQA, an employer can terminate the contract of a learnership if:
- The duration specified in the learnership agreement has expired;
- The employer and learner have agreed in writing to terminate the learnership agreement, or if there is no such agreement, the SETA that registered the agreement approves the termination; or
- The learner is fairly dismissed for a reason related to the learner’s conduct or capacity as an employee.
Solution: Doing your best is a foolproof tip. Therefore, you must take your learnership seriously if you want the host employer to take you seriously. In other words, to get the most of an internship, regardless of the compensation, you should treat your learnership like you would any job.
Final note
While learnership seems like it presents more hurdles you might experience than good, you can’t miss thinking about the positive side as well. For example, on this new opportunity, you will meet new people who share common thoughts as you. Together with them, you learn to develop your abilities and unleash your potential.
Are there any other hurdles you might experience during the learnership that we forgot to mention above? Feel free to post your comments.
Ultimately, when you do your best, then it is just the truth to receive the best too.