Laws is the first apprentice to be signed up by Mitchells & Butlers under a revised national scheme in which employers fund new apprenticeships through a payroll tax.
As a bar and waiting apprentice, she is also the first to be enrolled under the scheme’s Hospitality Team Member Apprenticeship Standard (HTMAS), run by training provider Lifetime Training.
Laws, who works at the County in South Shields, Tyne and Wear, said: “Becoming an apprentice has meant I get myself to a place where I can forward my career and my earning power. When I was accepted onto the apprentice programme it gave me such a confidence boost, and now I am also training as part of the business's fast-track STAR programme.
"I can’t wait to see where this takes me and what the future could hold.”
Laws had originally opted for a childcare course but rather than heading into a career she was unsure about, she decided to take a break from studying and spent a year working in a bar at Sunderland football club's home ground, the Stadium of Light, a job she loved.
She started her apprenticeship programme with Lifetime Training in May and is the first apprentice to start on the HTMAS scheme for Mitchells & Butlers, which already has nearly 1,600 apprentices.
Paul Capper, vocational learning manager at Mitchells & Butlers, said: "It's essential we can see the value we are driving through our apprentice scheme, and the new apprenticeship standards give us an opportunity to have more transparency about the true return on investment it creates.”
He added: “The standards focus on developing knowledge, skills and behaviour, which will drive greater quality standards within the team and across the wider apprentice network."
Julie Proctor, account director for hospitality at Lifetime Training, the UK’s largest apprenticeship training provider, said: “This was our first hospitality sector apprenticeship standard sign-up. I applaud Mitchells & Butlers for embracing change and embarking on a journey that I am sure will pay them back in dividends.”
The apprenticeship system in England was recently reformed. Apprenticeships are now funded through a levy. This is a payroll tax paid by all employers to fund new apprenticeships.