Going from apprentice to permanent employee is a bigger shift than it might look from the outside. Here’s what that transition actually involves.
Table of contents
Open Table of contents
The Offer Timeline
Most employers will approach you about a permanent role 2-3 months before your apprenticeship end date. If you get to the last month and nobody has raised it, you need to raise it yourself. Don’t wait.
The conversation to initiate: “I wanted to check in about what happens at the end of my apprenticeship. Is there a plan to bring me on permanently?”
This isn’t aggressive. It’s sensible. You need to make plans. If the answer is vague or negative, you need time to look elsewhere.
The Salary Conversation
Apprenticeship wages are deliberately low — that’s part of the deal. The expectation is that you’re being paid in training and experience as much as in money. When you convert to permanent, that deal ends.
What the market looks like for someone coming out of an IT apprenticeship (2025, UK):
- Helpdesk/1st line: £22,000–£26,000
- 2nd line support: £26,000–£32,000
- Junior security/analyst roles: £28,000–£35,000
- Cloud/infrastructure junior roles: £28,000–£36,000
These ranges vary significantly by location (London adds 15-25%), sector (financial services pays more), and the specific skills you’ve developed.
Know your number before you enter the conversation. Look at actual job adverts for roles equivalent to what you’re being offered. Glassdoor is inconsistent. LinkedIn salary insights and Totaljobs are more reliable for UK tech roles.
Don’t Undersell the Experience
Apprenticeship experience is real experience. You worked in a real environment, on real problems, for real users. The fact that you were paid less and had a training component doesn’t diminish that.
When applying for roles or negotiating, frame your experience the same way a graduate would frame theirs: by what you did, what you learned, what you can now do. The route you took to get there is secondary.
What Changes After the Conversion
You’re no longer given leniency. As an apprentice, people made allowances for mistakes and knowledge gaps because you were learning. As a permanent employee, the bar shifts. This is fine — you’re more capable than you were — but be aware of it.
Your relationship with your manager changes. Suddenly the conversations are about performance and development rather than training and assessment. This is mostly positive. You’re treated as a peer rather than a student.
You have more agency. You can push back on tasks more clearly, advocate for your own development, and make career decisions based on what you want rather than what the apprenticeship structure requires.
When to Leave vs When to Stay
Staying makes sense if:
- There’s a clear progression path (what does year two look like? year three?)
- You’re still learning and being given stretch opportunities
- The pay is competitive for what you’re doing
Leaving makes sense if:
- The organisation doesn’t have scope for where you want to go (small helpdesk shop when you want to be doing cloud engineering)
- The pay at conversion is significantly below market and won’t change
- You’ve learned what there was to learn there
The first employer is rarely the last employer. It’s fine to move. The loyalty instinct people feel toward an employer who gave them their first chance is understandable but shouldn’t override your own career interests.
One More Thing
Get everything in writing. Job title, salary, notice period, any commitments about training or progression that were made verbally. Not because employers are necessarily untrustworthy, but because people leave organisations, memories differ, and you want a record.