Apprentice to Designer: Life as an Apprentice at IDP

Oli is our apprentice architectural and graphical visualiser, studying a level 3 content creator apprenticeship at Solihull College. He joined IDP in December 2024 and is coming towards the end of his studies. Here, Oli talks through the journey that led him to where he is today — from exploring his options to starting his career at IDP.

Choosing the right career

Three years ago I completed my A-Levels and didn’t have a clear idea of what career I wanted to pursue. In January 2024, after 6 months of hospitality work, I set off on 4 months of travelling – visiting Thailand, Bali, Vietnam and Australia. This experience made me gain a lot of independence, find sources of inspiration and gave me more time to consider what I wanted to do when I returned.

After listing my interests, passions and exploring opportunities, I found an interest in marketing, web design and 3D modelling. I signed up for a 3 month paid online course in UX / UI design, which I studied part time. This taught me about the basics of marketing and web design, and helped me put together a CV and portfolio for applying to jobs.

I began exploring job vacancies and found IDP’s job advert for an apprentice architectural and graphical visualiser. I had never heard of this job role before but quickly found that it matched exactly what I was looking for. I would be working on marketing, 3D modelling and graphic design, within an industry that has always interested me.

Life at IDP

Since starting at IDP, I have always been supported and welcomed by everyone in the team. I work closely with Liam, who trained me on the software that we use and the different day to day tasks we may be asked to do.

I enjoy working as an apprentice as it means that I can earn a salary whilst gaining education and real work experience. Being able to learn and work with industry professionals at work whilst also learning the theory behind it all at college is really valuable and helps me truly understand what I am doing and why it works. I personally felt that studying at university was not the right option for me, so studying as an apprentice at IDP has been the perfect middle ground of experience and education.

In my role at work, I am regularly producing visuals for large scale, active projects. Some of the visuals I have created can be seen on local news platforms and within large client’s marketing material. It is really rewarding to see that I am working on important projects that are respected throughout the industry. The visuals I regularly produce include: sitewide models of up to 3,000 houses, highly detailed 3D photorealistic CGIs, artistic sketch impressions and detailed illustrative masterplans.

I am also part of the marketing team at IDP and am often involved in content creation for our social media and website. Gaining experience in such a range of different areas is really valuable in the early stages of my career as it helps me realise the areas that I am good at and am passionate about.

When I first joined IDP, my work was mainly small task-based work. This helped me to develop the individual skills that I needed to succeed in my role. However, now after just one year, I am in charge of managing my own workload, often balancing many different projects at the same time. I have taken charge of large CGI projects, working on them independently. I have also taken on responsibility of some over-arching practice goals, such as producing new document templates and developing new artistic sketch styles.

I hope to continue working at IDP for years to come, taking on more responsibilities and progressing in my job role. I also hope to continue studying, taking on a higher level qualification to ensure I am always improving.